EXCLUSIVE -- Syria's Al-Hol Camp comes to an end, but not the way anyone intended

One month ago, the al-Hol Camp contained approximately 23,400 residents – almost all women and children who emerged out of ISIS’s final territorial holdout in eastern Syria in 2019. Today, four weeks later, al-Hol is assessed to house no more than 5,000 people (possibly far less) and all of them will soon be gone too.

Events over the past few weeks have torn down a humanitarian, security, legal and diplomatic challenge that the international community has struggled to grapple with for years. But events over recent weeks raise troubling questions as to how and why the al-Hol project collapsed so precipitously, and as to what comes next.

This article is based heavily on extensive interviews with senior officials from Syria’s Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense and Interior, as well as from the U.S. government, two other members of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, and from entities in the multilateral and aid sector engaged on the al-Hol Camp issue. All interviews were conducted anonymously, given the sensitivity of issues discussed.