The United Nations (UN) has announced it will take over management of a camp in northeast Syria housing thousands of people with suspected links to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
It comes after Kurdish-led forces running the camp withdrew in the face of advancing Syrian government forces, sparking unrest that forced aid agencies to suspend operations.
Residents reportedly rushed around the camp’s perimeters in an apparent attempt to escape, causing unrest and looting.
A ceasefire deal brought much of northeastern Syria under Damascus’ control, ending years of autonomous Kurdish rule.
Speaking to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, U.N. official Edem Wosornu said the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, had “taken over camp management responsibilities” at al-Hol and was working with Syrian authorities to restore humanitarian access. Syrian forces, she explained, established a security perimeter around the camp.
However, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric warned that conditions inside remained “tense and unstable”, with humanitarian operations still suspended following the violence.
Meanwhile, the United States has launched a parallel effort to completely expel high-risk detainees from the region. US Central Command said Wednesday that he had begun transferring up to 7,000 suspected ISIS fighters from prisons in northeast Syria to Iraq, confirming that 150 detainees had already been transferred to a “secure location” across the border.
Iraqi authorities said all transferred detainees would be prosecuted under Iraqi law.
“This is a measure aimed at protecting regional and international security against an imminent threat. Nevertheless, we emphasize that this issue should not become a long-term strategic burden for Iraq alone,” said Iraq’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Mohammed Sahib Mejid Marzooq.
Syrian Ambassador to the UN Ibrahim Olabi said the Syrian government welcomed the US operation to transfer IS detainees out of Syrian territory and was ready to offer support.
Rights groups have warned that such transfers could expose detainees to serious abuse.
The charity Reprieve said it believed up to ten British men could be among those transferred, as well as detained minors, and urged the British government to intervene urgently. Around 55 to 60 British nationals, mostly children, are still detained in camps and prisons in the region, the statement said.
“Transferred prisoners risk being tortured, sentenced to death and executed, without the opportunity to challenge the allegations against them,” Reprieve deputy director Katherine Cornett told the BBC.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the United States and the United Nations have long called for the repatriation of foreign IS suspects and their families from northeast Syria, citing political instability and dire conditions in prisons and camps, but many countries have refused to take them in.
