There are still a dozen Finns at the Al-Holi camp. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they cannot be repatriated.
Situation Al-Holi camp in Syria is very dangerous for its residents, says Doctors Without Borders (MSF) report released on Monday.
The Al-Holi camp grew to its current dimensions in 2019, when the “caliphate” of the terrorist organization Isis in Syria crumbled. The camp was meant to be temporary, but now it has practically turned into a prison.
You can’t leave the camp, but since it’s not officially a prison, no one has been convicted of crimes either.
Large some of the camp’s residents are former or current members of ISIS or their family members. It is thought that more have ended up there without any connection to ISIS, says MSF.
Isis quickly conquered a large part of Syria in 2014, and many remained in the areas captured by Isis involuntarily.
When ISIS’s cycle of defeat began, many drifted further and further along ISIS’s shrinking territory and eventually ended up in al-Holi as a result of unfortunate coincidences.
“People were forced to leave their homes because most were in the wrong place at the wrong time. We were forced to leave our hometown and live in a city held by ISIS, and we had to move from place to place with ISIS,” says a camp resident interviewed by MSF in the report.
The resident said they were taken to the ISIS “capital” Raqqa, from where they were forced to move to Deir Ez-Zor.
“We couldn’t stay in the city because of the bombing by the Western coalition, and if we stayed behind, the coalition forces accused us of being a member of ISIS, so we had to move with ISIS. And now we’re here, and we’re still not safe.”
At camp there are currently around 50,000 people, most of whom are children.
At first, it was possible to go outside the camp, for example to work, but nowadays you can’t go out. The camp is surrounded by barbed wire and moats, and there are checkpoints here and there.
Security measures have been tightened because several armed groups operate in al-Holi. However, the camp is so big that security is not under anyone’s control, and the security forces are an even bigger concern for the residents. Security authorities also extort money and information from residents.
In 2021, homicide was by far the most common cause of death in al-Holi. Up to 38 percent of those who died in the camp died violently.
A common reason for homicides is extortion and being involved in violence between armed groups. The armed groups extort information from the camp residents, and if you agree to the demands, you have already drifted over to the side of the gangs.
The report 79 children died in the camp last year. Of all those who died last year, 35 percent were children under the age of 16.
There are still about ten Finns in the camp, most of whom are children. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is not possible to repatriate them now.
Médecins Sans Frontières demands that the countries whose citizens are in the camp take responsibility for the camp’s residents together with the local authorities.
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