Hesekê- Yesterday, the North East Syrian Internal Security Forces including Women's Defense Units (YPJ), People's Defense Units (YPG), and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced that they launched an operation to ensure security in al-Hol Camp and to deliver humanitarian aid to the camp. Thousands of security forces joined the operation and they first entered the area where Iraqi refugees stayed. On the first day of the operation, nine people, including Daesh members, were detained. The operation launched for the al-Hol Camp continues on its second day.

Kamîla Îbrahim Ceber is an Iraqi refugee and she has been living in the camp since 2014. Kamîla talks about the ongoing operation and previous process in the camp, and she says that she has to live with Daesh members while she fled from Mosul because of them. Kamîla and other people living in the camp don’t feel safe due to Daesh families.

“We don’t feel safe in the camp”

“Many families had to leave Mosul due to Daesh attacks. My family is one of these families. We recently went to Mosul, but we saw Iranians living in our hometown. I didn’t find any peace there. Theni we went to Anbar over Baghdad and returned to al-Hol camp. We feel safe here but not much,” Kamîla says that they don’t feel safe anymore after Daesh members from Baghuz were placed in the camp.

“Iraqi refugees are the most killed”

“Before the camp was a safe place but after Daesh families, particularly coming from Baghuz, came here, we began to face many problems. Recently, people are killed in the camp, and Iraqi refugees are the most killed. The presence of Daesh families in the camp poses a great threat to all refugees,” says Kamîla.

Kamîla tells us women and girls have been forced to wear a black abaya, “Daesh families threatened to kill us if we didn’t wear a black abaya. For this reason, we wear black abaya now.”

“Daesh is unfinished”

Kamîla Îbrahim Ceber tells us that Daesh organizes themselves through their families living in the camp, “Daesh is unfinished, Daesh families are organizing themselves. Their presence in the camp poses a great threat to us. They insistently wanted to live with us, when we refused them, they threatened us by saying, ‘we will come and live with you, or we will burn your tents.’ We built a shelter from concrete to protect us from them. But then, they wanted to live in our shelter. Fortunately, they haven't done anything so far. But we are not safe here. At nights, people are killed in the camp and I fear something to happen to my children so I always keep them with me.”

“We want to return Iraq”

Kamîla mentions the operation launched by security forces and says, “Launching such operation is a good decision. We will do our best to support them. When we see the security forces members patrolling inside the camp in the evenings, we feel safe. I demand the Iraqi Government to take us to Mosul because we will have no peace as long as Daesh families stay here. . A solution must be found because people living here are being killed.”

Al-Hol Refugee Camp

All-Hol refugee camp is a refugee camp on the southern outskirts of the town of al-Hol in northern Syria, close to the Syria-Iraq border, which holds individuals displaced from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. According to the latest data, 31,000 Iraqi refugees, 21,000 Syrian refugees and 8,700 Daesh families have lived in the camp. In March 2019, the SDF took the last of the Islamic State's territory in Syria in the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani, and thousands of families of Daesh fighters were kept in the camp. But repeated violent incidents occurred after Daesh families started to stay in the camp.

As of 2021, 47 refugees, mostly Iraqi refugees, have been killed by Daesh in the camp.