“Al-Hawl mini-state” in November | Security chaos…escalating murder cases and the release of over 200 families of ISIS members
The successive incidents at Al-Hawl camp, located in the far south-east of Al-Hasaka, are a clear sign of the chaos unleashed by the Islamic State in Syria.
Al-Hawl refugee camp for displaced people has become more like a “mini-state” hosting the group’s members and families. A true crisis that most countries in the world still ignore in order to avoid repatriating their unwanted citizens who joined the notorious Islamic State group. Chaos and lack of security are widespread within the camp, making it a time bomb that cannot be ignored.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights tracked and monitored the developments in the camp in November 2020.
Ongoing killings by the group’s cells
Last November, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored six murders in “Al-Hawl mini-state”, all committed by extremist women and men of ISIS cells. Four refugees of Iraqi nationalities were killed within the sectors “1,2,3 and5” through sharp objects and shootings.
It is worth nothing that the four victims were “collaborators” with the Internal Security Forces (Asayish), including the head of the “Iraqi Refugee Council.” In addition, two Syrians were killed, one of whom was a guard for an organization operating in the camp. While two Iraqis were also injured in two assassination attempts in the last month.
Security campaigns…ongoing smuggling operations and the camp’s guards are involved
Security campaigns continue in Al-Hawl camp to reduce the ongoing smuggling operations, which are carried out by paying huge sums of money by ISIS families to the camp guards of the Internal Security Forces and other military formations.
On November 11, SOHR activists said that three women of Tunisian nationality were arrested from “section of the immigrants” for smuggling in large amount of money with the aim of buying pistols, bullets and silencers of individual weapons and carrying out assassinations inside Al-Hawl camp.
A few days later, Asayish forces arrested a man and a woman of non-Syrian nationalities. According to SOHR sources, the woman, who is from Tajikistan, used to receive money from foreign bodies and deliver them to a man, who is of Iraqi nationality, in order to buy guns and silencers then smuggle them into Al-Hawl camp with the aim of killing individuals dealing with Asayish forces inside the camp.
It is worth nothing that the administration of Al-Hawl camp had allowed the camp’s inhabitants to receive remittances of only $200 per month, but the exchange offices and some of Al-Hawl camp officials allow large amounts of money to enter to the camp’s inhabitants in return for bribes.
Despite the security campaigns, some members of the Internal Security Forces (Asayish) smuggle ISIS families out of the camp for large sums of cash, and help extremist ISIS women to move from their section inside Al-Hawl camp to other sections allocated for Syrian and Iraqis refugees in return for 4,000 USD. Meanwhile, the number of women smuggled to other sections inside Al-Hawl camp has reached 110.
Release of Syrian families and handing over foreigners to their countries in accordance with prior agreements
The release of Syrian families from Al-Hawl camp in the far south-eastern region of Al-Hasakah has continued in the wake of the agreement reached in early October 2020 between the camp’s administration and “Syria Democratic Council”.
On November 16, the Self-Administration released 120 families from al-Hawl camp in Al-Hasakah countryside, most of them were residents from Deir ez-Zor province, under tribal elders’ guarantees. The number of new batches released is estimated at about 515 people.
On November 24, reliable SOHR sources confirmed that 90 families of some 350 persons from Deir Ezzor city and countryside left Al-Hawl camp in the far eastern region of Al-Hasakah, under the Autonomous Administration’s supervision.
According to SOHR statistics, nearly 22,000 Syrian people are still in Al-Hawl camp, while the camp’s administration prepares to release them in batches in the next few days and weeks. However, the total number of Syrian people in Al-Hawl camp includes nearly 16,000 people from regime-controlled areas, which hinders their release. Negotiations are therefore underway with the United Nations in order to secure the return of those people, so that they will not be prosecuted by regime security services, especially since the majority of them are ISIS families.
It is also worth noting that large number of people who have been released recently from “Al-Hawl mini-state” headed to camps in SDF-held areas in Al-Hasakah for many reasons, including their fear of retaliatory acts by residents in their areas for “being affiliated to ISIS”, and the fact that the houses of most of them have been already destroyed in earlier military operations.
On the other hand, the camp’s administration is working on releasing Iraqi ISIS families through negotiations with Iraqi government, but the Iraqi refugees in the camp are fearing persecution and retaliation by the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, especially since many of those refugees still believe in the Islamic State’s ideology.
This comes as more foreign children were handed over to representatives of their governments. On November 12, the “Self Administration in northern and north-eastern Syria” handed over 30 Russian children with their mothers to representatives of the “Russian Children’s Rights Commission”. The handover of the children and their mothers took place at the headquarters of the Self Administration’s Department of Foreign Relations in Al-Qamishli city.
It is worth noting that these children and women are of ISIS families and were in Al-Hawl camp in the far south-eastern Al-Hasakah.
On November 22, the SDF’s Relations Department released 23 people who were former fighters of the Islamic State.
According to Syrian Observatory sources, the 23 members were released under tribal elders’ guarantees, mostly residents from Al-Sour and Markada areas in northern countryside of Deir ez-Zor. They were arrested earlier while they were fighting with the Islamic State, and were in the SDF prison in Al-Shaddadi area in Al-Hasakah countryside.