Syrian Interior Ministry says it monitoring irregular departures from al-Hawl Camp
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The Syrian Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday that it is monitoring the status of individuals who left al-Hawl Camp in the countryside of Hasakah through what it described as “irregular” means, stating that most have been returned and their legal situations settled.
Speaking during a press conference in Damascus, Interior Ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba said the ministry had taken immediate measures to restore security at the camp and secure its surroundings.
“Since the first moments, the ministry began re-establishing security, closing breaches in the camp’s perimeter fence, securing its surroundings, and placing the site under the supervision of the competent authorities,” al-Baba said.
He added that authorities worked to ensure humanitarian needs in coordination with civil society organizations while launching a review of detainees’ personal data and identification documents.
Al-Baba noted that women, children, and elderly individuals constitute approximately 70 percent of the camp’s residents, most of whom are Syrians and Iraqis.
The spokesperson said the Syrian government’s approach is based on “respect for human dignity and the fair application of the law, away from politicizing civilian suffering,” adding that anyone proven to have committed crimes would be pursued through “transparent judicial procedures.”
He described the humanitarian situation inside al-Hawl Camp as “shocking by all standards,” citing harsh living conditions in a semi-desert area lacking adequate infrastructure and stating that conditions contradict “basic principles of justice and human rights.”
Al-Hawl Camp, located in eastern Hasakah, houses tens of thousands of Syrians, Iraqis, and foreign nationals, many of them family members of suspected Islamic State (ISIS) fighters. The camp had long been administered under the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, with security maintained by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which had repeatedly warned about security risks posed by overcrowding and the continued presence of extremist networks inside the facility.
Al-Baba also announced that the ministry had prepared a security deployment plan for Hasakah governorate, coinciding with the entry of Syrian Arab Army units into parts of the area, in line with an agreement signed between the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces.