Syrians returning from Al Hol camp stigmatised over Daesh ties

Raqqa, Syria — Noura Al Khalif married a Daesh group supporter and then wound up without her husband in a Syrian camp viewed by many as the last surviving pocket of the “caliphate”. 

The 31-year-old woman has been back in her hometown outside the northern city of Raqqa for three years but she Daesh struggling to shake off the stigma of having lived in Al Hol camp.

“Most of my neighbours call me an Daesh supporter,” she told AFP from her father’s house near Raqqa, where she now lives with her two children.

“I just want to forget but people insist on dragging me back, and ever since I left Al Hol I haven’t felt either financial or emotional comfort.” 

Al Hol, in the Kurdish-controlled northeast, still houses about 56,000 people, mostly Syrians and Iraqis, some of whom maintain links with Daesh. 

About 10,000 are foreigners, including relatives of Daesh fighters, and observers are increasingly worried what was meant as a temporary detention facility Daesh turning into a jihadist breeding ground.

Most of Al Hol’s residents are people who fled or surrendered during the dying days of Daesh’s self-proclaimed “caliphate” in early 2019.

For staying, whether by choice or not, until the very end, they are seen as fanatical Daesh supporters, although the camp’s population also includes civilians displaced by battles against the extremists. 

The stigma Daesh a challenge for Khalif who arrived in Al Hol from Baghouz, the riverside hamlet where Daesh was declared definitively defeated by US-backed Kurdish forces.

“Al Hol camp was more merciful to us than Raqqa. I left the camp for my children and their education, but the situation here Daesh not better,” she said.

Tribal chiefs

In 2014, Khalif married a Saudi-born jihadist and lived with him across several Daesh-held regions before the two were separated by the fighting.

She hasn’t heard from her husband since she left for Al Hol in 2019.

After a few months living in the camp, Khalif was permitted to leave along with hundreds of other Syrians under an agreement between Syrian tribal chiefs and Kurdish authorities overseeing the facility.

More than 9,000 Syrians have since been allowed to exit Al Hol under such deals which aim to empty the camp of nationals, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Khalif’s homecoming has been anything but sweet.

She said she struggles to make a living cleaning homes and faces constant suspicion.

“Some families won’t let me clean their homes because I wear the niqab [face veil] and because they think I’m an Daesh supporter,” she said.

“Society won’t accept me.”

Raqqa tribal elder Turki Al Suaan has arranged for the release of 24 families from Al Hol with the aim of facilitating their reintegration into their communities, but he acknowledged that it was no easy task. 

“I know their families and they are from our region,” he told AFP, explaining his endorsement. 

“But the intolerance that society has towards these people Daesh a reaction to the abuses committed by Daesh against civilians in the area during their rule,” he said.

Raqqa resident Sara Ibrahim warned that there was a danger in stigmatising people returning to Raqqa from Al Hol, most of whom are women and children.

“A lot of families in Raqqa refuse to engage with these people and this... could push them towards extremism in the future,” she said.

Prejudice

Fearing prejudice, Amal has kept a low profile since she arrived in Raqqa seven months ago from Al Hol. 

The 50-year-old grandmother and members of her family were among the last of those who flooded out of Baghouz, where the extremists made their final stand.

“My neighbours in Raqqa do not know that I was in Al Hol camp, and I fear people will have a bad idea if they know that I was living” there, she said, a niqab covering her face.

“As long as I am comfortable with my life... there Daesh no need for people to know,” she added.

Umm Mohammad, who also fled Baghouz three years ago, Daesh still adjusting to life in Raqqa since leaving Al Hol late last year under tribal guarantees.

“When Daesh society going to stop treating us like Daesh supporters?” she asked.

“I just want to live in peace and comfort.”