By Micah Jonah, February 23, 2026
Syrian authorities have fully evacuated the al-Hol camp, a remote facility that housed thousands of relatives of suspected ISIL (ISIS) members.
Fadi al-Qassem, the government official in charge of the camp, said the last residents were relocated on Sunday morning. “All Syrian and non-Syrian families were relocated,” he told Agence France-Presse.
The al-Hol camp, located in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province, once held up to 73,000 people at its peak in 2019. As of last month, about 24,000 residents remained, including Syrians, Iraqis, and more than 6,000 foreign nationals from around 40 countries.
Although the camp’s inhabitants were not formally imprisoned, they had been confined in a heavily guarded facility for years. In January, Syrian government forces took control of al-Hol from Kurdish authorities as Damascus expanded its reach in the region.
Since then, thousands of residents have been relocated to other camps or repatriated. Hundreds have gone to the Akhtarin camp in Aleppo province, while others returned to Iraq. Some Syrians reportedly left independently for their hometowns, and many foreigners moved to government-controlled areas in Idlib and Aleppo governorates.
Al-Qassem said the relocated women and children would require support for reintegration. Meanwhile, the future of the smaller Roj camp, still under Kurdish-led control, remains uncertain.
Several countries have refused to repatriate foreign residents. On February 16, buses carrying 34 Australian women and children from Roj were turned back by Syrian authorities. Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese later confirmed that the families would not be accepted, citing their prior involvement with ISIL.
The evacuation marks the closure of one of the largest facilities holding relatives of ISIL fighters in Syria.
