Al-Hawl refugee camp
Al-Hawl refugee camp
مخيم الهول للاجئين | |
|---|---|
Refugee camp | |
The camp in October 2019 | |
| Coordinates: 36°22′32″N 41°08′55″E / 36.37556°N 41.14861°E | |
| Country | Syria |
| Governorate | Al-Hasakah Governorate |
| District | Al-Hasakah District |
| Established | 1991 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Controlled by Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria |
| Population (2023) | |
• Total | ~50,000 |
| Primarily displaced persons from Syrian Civil War | |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
The Al-Hawl refugee camp (also Al-Hol refugee camp or simply Al-Hawl camp, Arabic: مخيم الهول للاجئين, Kurdish: کەمپی ھۆڵ, romanized: Kempa holê) is a refugee camp on the southern outskirts of the town of al-Hawl in northern Syria, close to the Syria-Iraq border, which holds individuals displaced from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The camp is nominally controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) but according to the U.S. Government, much of the camp is run by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant who use the camp for indoctrination and recruitment purposes.
As of February 2021, the camp's population was more than 60,000 having grown from 10,000 at the beginning of 2019 after the SDF took the last of the Islamic State's territory in Syria in the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani. The refugees are women and children from many countries, primarily Syria and Iraq.
As of mid-2023, the camp population had fallen below 50,000 due to repatriations.