Syrian Authorities Begin Transferring Residents of Al-Hol Camp in Preparation for Its Evacuation

Syrian authorities today began transferring the remaining residents of Al-Hol camp in Hasakah province to the Ahtarin camp in Aleppo, as a preliminary step for the complete evacuation of the camp within a week, according to informed government officials.

The decision to transfer is due to a lack of basic necessities

Fadi Al-Qassem, the government official in charge of managing the camp's affairs, confirmed that an assessment of the camp's needs revealed a lack of basic living conditions. Al-Qassem stated: "We have urgently decided to transfer the camp's residents to the ready camps in Aleppo, and the camp will be completely evacuated within a week, with no one remaining, and the transfer process began today."

The new camp in Ahtarin

For his part, a government source, who preferred to remain anonymous, mentioned that the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management is working on transferring the residents of Al-Hol camp to a camp in Ahtarin north of Aleppo, explaining that vehicles carrying residents have already left Hasakah heading to the new camp.

Decrease in the number of camp residents

The spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Syria, Celine Schmidt, reported that the number of residents in Al-Hol camp has significantly decreased over the past weeks. Schmidt added that the government informed the commission and its partners that it plans to transfer the small remaining number to Ahtarin camp and requested their support in this process.

About 24,000 people before evacuation

Al-Hol camp housed about 24,000 people, including approximately 15,000 Syrians and nearly 6,300 foreign women and children from 42 nationalities, most of whose countries refused to repatriate them. However, the population numbers have noticeably decreased following the withdrawal of Kurdish forces from the camp in late January and its handover to Syrian security forces as part of a partial agreement to integrate administrative and military forces in Hasakah province.