After the fall of the last IS-Bastion Baghus, the number of people in the camp, Al-Hol in the North of Syria is about 70,000, swollen, including 40,000 children. Who is responsible for them?
Who enters Twitter for the Hashtag #Baghouz, can you see: dusty, hooded figures in long rows, emaciated and tired. Bearded Men. Black-clad, fully women with dirty children concealed in the hands, how to get water and bread and then on open trucks to be loaded.
No one had expected it, and how many IS pendant from the tents, tunnels and bombed-out buildings of Baghus would come, for months besieged area of just four square kilometres on the banks of the Euphrates in Eastern Syria. Alone in the last week before the end of the fighting on may 23. In March, there were over 10,000 women, children and men in the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic forces, SDF, led the fight on the ground.
In the shadow of the victory of the Kurdish regional administration, by the sheer number of people overwhelmed the checks and must be supplied is to be celebrated. This is most obvious in the refugee camp, Al-Hol, not far from the Turkish border in northeastern Syria. Originally the camp was built in the year 2016 for refugees from Iraq, with a capacity for about 10,000 people. Today, however, are housed, according to the International Red cross, more than 74,000 people in Al-Hol.
The sick children of the “Caliphate”
Around 45 percent of the inmates are originally from Syria and Iraq. About 10 percent come from abroad, also from Germany. Al-Hol is the largest of several Camps in the Kurdish Autonomous region. Here, exclusively women and children, sitting almost Misty Buswell from the International Rescue Committee, IRC explains. Alone the number of children estimated Buswell in an interview with Deutsche Welle on around 40,000. Many were in a poor state of health. Of the more than 140 deaths on the way to Al-Hol, or shortly after, arrival in the camp, most children and babies travelling.
Samir Elhawary is confirmed. The DW reaches the Deputy Director for the coordination of Humanitarian assistance at the United Nations in Syria in Damascus. Elhawary reported, many of the new arrivals in Al-Hol were in shock, were malnourished, suffered from pneumonia and diarrhea. “They were for months in a war zone,” says the UN-man. For the 300 kilometre-long journey of Baghus according to Al-Hol open load had been used car that would normally be used for the transport of Animals.
Many of the women from Baghus are pregnant, are about to give birth or have just had children. The Director of the International Committee of the Red cross, Peter Maurer, said after his recent visit to the Al-Hol of the encounter with a 24-year-old woman who had to get on the way to the camp, your child. As a Mason met her, she sat for 10 hours with your newborn on the floor, without water, food or medical help.
“The pressure is huge, we can barely keep up,” also confesses Nabil Hassan, one of the speakers of the camp. In an Interview with the Internet Portal “AL-Monitor,” laments the lack of international support: “they do very little. Our biggest Problem is to feed these people.”
The burden of victory
The Frustration of the Kurds is palpable. It was mainly their YPG forces fighting the IS in Syria. Now you feel the load of the victory left alone. In a press release the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic forces, SDF, refer to the 11,000 women and men in Uniform who had fallen in the fight against the terrorist militia.
The Kurdish-dominated SDF have lost the fight against the IS 11,000 people
With views of the approximately 9000 foreign IS fighters and their family members of the SDF: “The Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria has appealed to the international community to shoulder its responsibility” and their nationals back. Bitter continues: “unfortunately, However, there was no reaction”. In the meantime, the Kurds, the international community now propose, in the North of Syria, an international Tribunal to prosecute IS terrorists. But the Kurdish government in Northern Syria is not internationally recognized.
Lack of international responsibility
Also, the German Federal government pulls back on the observation that Berlin had terminated diplomatic relations with Damascus and have no official relations with the Kurds. Therefore, discussions about the repatriation of German IS-followers were not possible.
Kamal Sido outraged by this attitude. The middle East expert of the society for threatened peoples is himself a Kurd from Northern Syria. He keeps in close contact in the Region. In an interview with DW Sido reports of a visit to the Federal foreign office. His concern: The Federal government should not hesitate to aid in the identification of IS-fighters in the Camps in North-East Syria. However, the Foreign office persisted in its attitude, that this Autonomous region will not be recognised from Berlin, therefore, is nothing he can do.
The middle East expert international help in the Verification and separation of the people in the Kurdish Camps, like Al-Hol is very important. Because of Baghus only a fighter and IS not came out-the trailer alive, but also local civilians. In addition, the IS had abducted enslaved Yazidis from Iraq in his last Bastion.
SDF fighters with the IS freed Yazidis in Baghus
The Security Risk
Now, so Kamal Sido, could it be, that the offender and the victim were housed in the same camp. He also maintains contact with the local population of Al-Hol. “Say, the stock is not well protected. It may be, that IS-trailer leave the warehouse and carry out attacks.” In fact, Al-Hol was not a detention camp, says another source, who asked to remain anonymous. Free – and also you could not go but also.
That the security situation is at least tense, it was clear, as recently, a Mob of IS-women in the camp went off on the security forces. The media can fight back according to reports, only by warning shots. After years of living in the so-called “Caliphate” are radicalized a lot of people. You defend the IS ideology and show recognizable no remorse. They represent the long-term a security risk – also with regard to the Recruitment of new recruits.
Nevertheless, it is wrong to help these people, stresses Misty Buswell of the IRC. Especially the long-term psycho-social support of children is important: “in order To the acts of cruelty and violence process, and in their societies.” Especially education is a key to this, “that they can hope to live a normal life.”