Power has been transferred, at least in part, from guards to guards in a camp where women and children in the Isis area of extremism are being held.
20:06 • Updated 8:24 PM
AL-HOL – Get lost! We will kill you, shout in black robe and face veil, niqab, dressed in Arabic
We are in the food market of the al-Hol camp in northern Syria and the atmosphere is very hostile.
The woman is trying to hurry us further away from something she grabbed with a box.
After a while, the woman digs up her cell phone and calls – apparently to call for confirmations.
Eggs and rocks are already flying in the air. Among the throwers are small children, there are enough in the al-Hol camp. They have been in the harsh conditions of a tent camp for years.
The situation in the food market is evolving rapidly and an employee of the al-Hol camp administration in our company says it is best to retreat now before the situation becomes dangerous.
We move to the other side of the steep steel fence.
Families of former Isis fighters and other Caliphate residents in the camp
Guarded by Kurdish-led security forces in northern Syria, al-Hol looks farther from a regular refugee camp.
Rather, it is a prison camp from which residents are not allowed to leave without permission. And permission is required, for example, if a foreign resident is repatriated.
There are still about 55,000 people here, including the spouses of Isis fighters and their children.
Inside the fences, camp control seems to have shifted, at least in part, to hard-line residents who keep others in check and expel unwanted guests like us.
Do the last Finns want to leave al-Hol?
The management of the camp does not give interviews, but says that there are also Finns among the foreigners held at the camp – although there is no exact information about the matter, because the residents have never been able to register.
According to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, there are still a dozen Finns in Northern Syria, most of them children.
Chief Consul of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jussi Tanner says that the last Finns cannot be repatriated at the moment, for reasons beyond Finland ‘s control.
– It is not possible to say exactly (why), because it is a matter of private people and children. I can say that communication has been impossible recently, Jussi Tanner tells .
He was appointed consular chief in early June. As the Special Representative of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Tanner has led the repatriation of Finns from Northern Syria, and this task will also continue.
Tanner has stated that it is hardly possible to repatriate all Finns.
Listen to a longer interview with Jussi Tanner:
“No one can be forced to help”
Unless Finns in al-Hol want help from the Finnish authorities, there are no coercive measures, not even for children.
– If people do not want to be helped, we do not have legal means to help them or their children by force, says Jussi Tanner
According to Chief Consul Tanner, the goal is still to bring all the children out, but it will not succeed without the involvement of adults.
– As long as the children are in the camp, it is not possible to separate them from their mothers in a legally sustainable way. There is no child protection authority or the like that can carry out its separation as it should, Tanner says.
– In practice, there is a non-state armed group that, moreover, does not agree to forcibly separate children, Tanner reminds.
Representatives of the Kurdish-led regime overseeing Al-Holia and other camps in northern Syria have repeatedly stated that children cannot be repatriated without their mothers.
In Al-Hol, however, the clock is ticking, and the security situation at the camp is worrying.
The threat of attacks and mass exodus is worrying
Al-Hol’s leadership is concerned about possible attacks that would try to free the women in the camp. January 2022 (you move to another service) Isis attacked the al-Sina prison near the city of Hasaka, which has thousands of Isis fighters imprisoned.
Hundreds of people died and a small number of prisoners escaped. Figures on the number of fugitives vary. Al-Hol’s camp leadership suspects the aim was to continue the attack by hitting al-Hol as well.
Later in the spring, a firefight took place in al-Hol, killing three people.
Although Isis is just a shadow further, it still poses a clear threat.
Violent violence in the camp
Al-Hol is a rugged place and this is especially true of the parts of the camp inhabited by Syrians and Iraqis.
When we went to camp in early June, two recent murders by beheading had come to the attention of the camp administration.
A third murder was reported in public after our departure. The murders are apparently part of the discipline of women who support Fathers or the showdown with other campers.
Non-Iraqis and Syrians have been assembled in their own territory of more than 8,000 people. There have been no reports of murders there recently, although other violence has been reported by the camp administration.
Some of the people we meet on a quick visit to al-Hol seem very hostile.
Another impression is that Kurdish-led security forces will be able to keep residents inside the fences, but control of the camp has been partially lost.
See the Outer Line documentary Year in al-Hol: