KOBANI, Syria (North Press) – After two years and a half, Ahmed al-Jassem, a returnee from Hawl Camp, east of Hasakah, is getting ready to work in agriculture in his village in Sirrin district, in the countryside of Aleppo, northern Syria, while other families were not lucky enough to leave the camp and are still waiting for sponsors to guarantee their residency in a village.
Al-Jassem is one of 202 people affiliated with 59 Syrian families of ISIS who left Hawl Camp on Wednesday, to start his new life in his region with his relatives who have waited for his return for so long.
Al-Jassem has arrived to his village of Bujak, eight kilometers south of Kobani, with his wife, two children, his sister and her child, where their mother was waiting for them.
Rest after misery
Al-Jassem said he felt comfortable the moment he arrived in his village, as he was received by Sirrin District Council to follow up his settling procedures in his house in the village.
He told North Press that their condition in the camp was terrible, especially regarding the services, lack of drinking water, other living conditions in addition to security risks.
In October 2020, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria’s (AANES) Executive Council decided to empty Hawl Camp from the Syrian families desiring to leave.
This is considered the sixth batch after an initiative of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) and tribal sheikhs to depart the Syrians from the camp, while it is the first one heading to the regions of Sirrin and the countryside of Kobani.
Sirrin District Council has formed a committee to receive the families coming from Hawl Camp. It has delivered 48 families to their villages and towns; 43 of which have settled in Sirrin and its countryside, three have moved to Manbij and one to Raqqa city.
“The committee secured the arrival of one family to Jarabulus city through the Awn al-Dadat crossing to join their relatives in Azaz city,” ember of Sirrin District Council Mahmoud al-Barho said.
Uncompleted travel
The feeling of stability and freedom from Hawl Camp’s risks has not included all families, as eight families have returned to the camp ” because there was no sponsor for them as they were not indigenous people of Sirrin.”
Each family that does not have documents proving they are from the Euphrates region (Kobani, Sirrin and the countryside of Tel Abyad) needs a sponsor of the town or the village that it wants to reside in, according to al-Barho.
Al-Barho stated that there are three families still waiting for sponsors, “they are currently residing in a school of the town under the supervision of the committee.”
The returnee families are reviewed by the councils of the villages of Bujak and Hafyan for documentation and obtain their allocations of the daily needs such as bread, gas, and fuel, according to the Sirrin District Council.
Survivors to safety
Most of the families settled in the region consider themselves survivors of hard living conditions and security risks, as the camp recorded multiple murders, the last of which was the murder of a Syrian refugee Friday when he was returning from Friday prayers to his tent.
Hawl Camp is home to 59,000 Syrian IDPs, Iraqi refugees and families of killed and detainees of ISIS.
So far, the number of Syrian families that left the camp and headed to their regions has reached 1,000.
“We have always wanted to return to our town; there is nothing like home,” Najwa Jader, a returnee from Hawl Camp told North Press.
“The camp is not a place for living, ” she added. “What we want is safety and stability. It is what we feel here.”