USA

The United States has repatriated an American child separated from his family from an expanding camp in the Northeast of Syria that houses tens of thousands of people with alleged links with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the State Department said Tuesday.

The department estimates that about 30,000 people from 70 countries remain in the Al-Hol camp and in another similar camp, most of them wives and children of ISIS combatants and supporters of the extremist group. They include Iraqi and national from Western countries that traveled to join the foreign terrorist group designated by the United States.

Human rights groups for years have cited bad living conditions and generalized violence in the Al-Hol field, that Syrian democratic forces backed by the United States and led by Kurdas have administered for years. The SDF is Washington’s key ally in the combination of ISIS in Syria and its sleeping cells, and for years they have made great stripes of the Northeast of Syria.

The senior foreign correspondent of News themezone Holly Williams visited the Al-Hol camp in 2019 and spoke with the residents of the camp. Many of them expressed regret for their previous ties with ISIS and said they wanted to return to their countries of origin, often in Western Europe, but some defended the group’s terrorist attacks.

The State Department did not give any detail about repatriation, except in a statement that the child “has not known anything about the camps” and will meet with his family.

The United States Army for years has been pressing for countries to repatriate their citizens of Al-Hol and the smallest and smaller red camp. Iraq has recovered an increasing number in recent years, but many other countries have remained reluctant.

“The only lasting solution to the humanitarian and security crisis in these camps of displaced persons in the northeast of Syria is that the countries of origin repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate and, when appropriate, to guarantee the responsibility of their nationals,” reads the statement of the State Department. “The same goes for the old ISIS combatants in detention centers in the northeast of Syria,” he said, using a different abbreviation for IS.

Despite the difficult conversations to formally merged with the new rulers of the country under the interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa, Damascus and the SDF in May they reached an agreement to repatriate the Syrians in the camp. Since the expulsion of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December, Washington has been pressing so that the two parties implement their agreement and unify the Syrian territory, which would finally put the camp under government control.

Last year, shortly after the Assad government fell, News themezone was taken inside The Al-Hol camp. Guards said the security situation had deteriorated since the voice had spread over the expulsion of Assad, which increases the optimism that they could leave the camp.

The SDF did not comment immediately to News about repatriation.

• Civil rights
• Damascus