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The new government in Damascus continues evacuating Syrian families from a sprawling camp in the desert that houses tens of thousands of people with alleged ties to the Daesh terrorist group, which is run by the PKK/YPG terrorist group.
The convoy “Hope 3”, third one since evacuations began in June, brought more civilians from the notorious al-Hol camp in northwestern Syria to the northern Aleppo province, Münzir al-Sellal, director of the Stability Support Unit, told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Sunday.
Sellal emphasized that this initiative is a significant step in reuniting Syrian civilians residing in the camp with their families, saying, “With this convoy, we are reuniting civilians residing in Hol Camp with their families in various Syrian provinces. The convoy includes 38 women and 16 children from the provinces of Homs, Idlib, and Daraa.”
He noted that they are working to accelerate the evacuation process despite the camp’s fragile conditions, stating, “It is both a humanitarian imperative and a national priority for these families to leave the camp, reunite with their families, and reintegrate into Syrian society.”
Sellal added that numerous institutions are coordinating to ensure the process runs smoothly, noting that there are still between 13,000 and 14,000 people remaining in the camp, most of whom are families from areas outside northeastern Syria.
The Stability Support Unit, in coordination with the Damascus administration, launched the first evacuation convoy from al-Hol camp on June 16, 2025.
The evacuations are part of a “joint mechanism” set up between the PKK/YPG and Damascus in May for returning he families from al-Hol camp after a meeting among local authorities, representatives of the central government in Damascus, and a delegation from the U.S.-led international coalition fighting Daesh.
Human rights groups for years have cited poor living conditions and pervasive violence in the camp, which houses about 37,000 people, mostly wives and children of Daesh fighters, as well as supporters of the terrorist group. They also include Iraqis as well as nationals of Western countries who traveled to join Daesh.
The U.S. military has been pushing for years for countries that have citizens at al-Hol and the smaller, separate Roj Camp to repatriate them. Iraq has taken back increasing numbers of citizens in recent years, but many other countries have remained reluctant.
Prisons where about 9,000 suspected members of Daesh are held are also expected to come under central government control.
As for Syrians housed in the camp, a mechanism has been in place for several years to return those who want to go back to their communities in the YPG-occupied areas. Before now, however, there had not been an agreement with the government in Damascus to return them to areas under the central government’s control.
The YPG is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist group, which led a bloody terror campaign in Türkiye, parts of Iraq and Syria for over four decades, killing at least 40,000 people. Earlier this year, the terrorists announced they would lay down their arms and dissolve the organization as part of a “terror-free” initiative launched in Türkiye late last year. Ankara expects the YPG to follow suit and fulfill a March agreement it struck with Damascus to integrate into the new Syrian army by the end of 2025 after former regime head Bashar Assad was unseated in December.
