France Allocates Humanitarian Aid for Hawl Refugee Camp In Syria
A foreign woman living at al-Hawl camp in northeastern Syria, which houses relatives of ISIS terrorists. (Giuseppe Cacace/AFP)
France will allocate humanitarian aid worth one million euros to refugee camps in northeastern Syria, especially al-Hawl camp, which so far took in thousands of ISIS-affiliated foreign women and children, the French foreign minister said on Monday.
“Given the scale of the humanitarian crisis, we have decided to boost our movement in the region’s camps, especially the Hawl, which currently has 70,000 people living in very difficult conditions,” Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement.
The camp was originally established to accommodate a maximum of 20,000 people, yet it has seen a significant influx since the December 2005 crackdown on ISIS by the Syrian Democratic Forces.
According to AFP reporters, Syrian civilians and ISIS families live in extremely difficult conditions in which their tents are waterlogged, their children suffer from diarrhea and mothers there are unable to feed because they do not receive enough food.
Kurdish authorities, who are allied to the US-led international coalition against ISIS, have repeatedly warned of this situation and demanded assistance.
Le Drian said his country would provide “tents, commodities, food aid and access to water” worth half a million euros, “especially” to the Hawl camp.
It will provide aid worth another half a million euros to “two health centers set up by France in 2017 at Hawl camp and receive more than 2,000 patients every month,” the Foreign Minister added.
France has created a 50-million-euros worth emergency program for Syria, benefiting more than 12 million displaced people and refugees from the country’s northeast.
The Hawl camp is also overcrowded with more than 9,000 foreign women and children, dozens of whom are from France and are under tight surveillance in a pocket which separates them from the rest of the camp by a fence.
Foreigners have been moved apart because they are closely linked to ISIS and are responsible for the tragic situation in which Syrians find themselves.
France refuses to receive its extremist citizens and their wives and doesn’t want to allow children back until each case is examined separately. Five orphans were repatriated on March 15.
Source: France Allocates Humanitarian Aid for Hawl Refugee Camp In Syria | Asharq AL-awsat