UN: more than 100 people killed in Al-Hol refugee camp in 18 months
Al-Hol refugee camp. Photo: AP
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The United Nations announced on Tuesday that more than 100 people, the majority of the them are women, were killed in Al-Hol refugee camp in north eastern Syria within 18 month, and asked concerned countries to bring back their citizens, according to AFP.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, Imran Riza, stated that the Kurdish-controlled Al-Hol camp suffers from increasing insecurity, and gives children no hope for the future, noting that 94 percent of the refugees living in the camp are women and children.
“It is a very harsh and increasingly unsafe place. There have been 106 murders in the camp since January 2021, and many of the victims were women,” Riza explained.
“There are about 27 thousand Iraqi refugees, 18 to 19 thousand Syrians, and about 12 thousand citizens from other nationalities live in the camp,” Riza elaborated.
Riza clarified if Iraq brought back some of the Iraqi citizens, many other countries that should bring back their citizens refuse to do so. He considered the best solution is to evacuate the camp.
According to the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, 14.6 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid in Syria. This is 1.2 million people more than 2021, and is considered the highest number since the beginning of the civil war.
The overcrowded refugee camp of Al-Hol is less than 10 kilometers away from the Iraqi borders, and according to the United Nations, around 56 thousand people live in this refugee camp.
In addition to foreign families of militants, estimated at about 10 thousand people, the camp also shelters families of displaced Syrians and Iraqis, some of them are still in contact with ISIS.