(Zaman Al Wasl)- About 1000 displaced have been forced to leave al-Hol camp in Hasaka province towards a Kurdish-held territory in eastern Deir Ezzor province, local activists said Thursday.
The forced evacuation was due to the arrival of Iraqi displaced to the refugee camp of al-Hol, activist Muhanad al-Yousef told Zaman al-Wasl.
Al-Hol camp hosts thousands of Iraqi and Syrian displaced who fled Daesh areas along the border.
The Iraqi refugees came from al-Shaddai town southeast of Hasaka city, according to al-Yousef.
The Democratic Council and Autonomous Administration, with the support of international organizations, set up six camps in Raqqa and al-Hasakeh governorates to receive the displaced residents. Two, Ain Issa and al-Hol, also house foreign nationals in separate sections. The SDF also erected multiple checkpoints to capture and screen incoming people, re-route fleeing populations to the camps, and detain ISIS suspects, residents and aid groups told Human Rights Watch.
According to the United Nations, until May 2018, 125,642 residents from Raqqa and 248,658 from Deir al-Zour have been displaced by the fighting there. While displacement numbers have decreased, and camp populations have stabilized, according to aid groups and camp officials, the arbitrary restrictions on movement remain a concern.
Authorities from the Syrian Democratic Council, a civilian authority operating in areas retaken from ISIS, and the Kurdish Autonomous Administration operate these displacement camps.
The Human Rights Watch said last week that the camp confinement had increased vulnerability to exploitation, separated families, and restricted their health care access. Both authorities are constituted primarily from the Democratic Union Party (PYD).
The Syrian Democratic Council, a civilian authority operating, has confiscated residents’ identification documents and arbitrarily prevented them from leaving.
Human Rights Watch interviewed 24 Syrians displaced from Deir al-Zour and Raqqa, in person and remotely, who were in or had passed through four internal displacement camps – al-Hol, al-Sad, Mabrouka, and Ain Issa – between February 2017 and May 2018. They described fleeing violence and persecution, only to be captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) or the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the armed wings of the Syrian Democratic Council and the Autonomous Administration respectively, placed in these camps, and prevented from leaving.
Zaman Al Wasl
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