(10 May 2024)
SYRIA CAMP RETURN
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 2:49
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Al-Hol camp, Syria – 8 May 2024
1. Trucks to be loaded with belongings of people inside the camp
2. People bringing their belongings
3. People loading their belongings onto the truck
4. Various of women sitting next to their belongings
5. People standing next to loaded trucks
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ali Ramadan, 56-year-old displaced man from Deir el-Zour countryside:
"Well, I have been living in the camp for seven years. And now I am going back to live my normal life. First, I will go and see my family. It has been seven years that I haven’t seen my mother. She calls every time and says, ‘come back and see your kids, they have grown up and we want to see you.’ So, thank God, I will go see my mother, my relatives, my brothers and all of my uncles. I miss them all so much."
7. Trucks
8. People loading their belongings onto trucks
9. Various of women getting food from the camp’s kitchen
10. Women and children sitting by their belongings
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Maitha al Raja, 38-year-old displaced woman from Deir el-Zour countryside:
"We signed up for this journey about nine months ago. The situation in the camp became very bad recently. I mean there were a lot of problems and there have been a lot of thieves. There has been injustice. Now, thank God, we are leaving. We are pleased and happy to be leaving. We are happy because we are going to see our families and I am happy I will see my son. He is the only one I’ve got, he is an only child."
12. Various of people walking in the camp
13. Guard with gun watching people
14. People walking on the main street in the camp
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Jihan Hanan, director of al-Hol camp:
“In 2024, we had only two journeys to Iraq and this is the first journey to Deir el-Zour city. There are efforts by international parties and pressures on countries to repatriate their citizens. But the return ratio is very small compared to the large number of people present in the camp. There are very few journeys compared to the total number of people living inside the camp.”
16. Women sitting by their belongings
17. Various of loaded trucks leaving the camp
STORYLINE:
Scores of Syrian women and children linked to the Islamic State group left a sprawling camp in northeast Syria Wednesday and headed home to the eastern province of Deir el-Zour following mediation by tribal leaders.
This is the latest batch of people to leave al-Hol camp, which houses wives, widows, children and other family members of IS militants.
Their departure comes as repatriations by foreign countries have increased in recent months in an attempt to reduce the population of the facility that at its peak five years ago housed 73,000 people.
Beginning in the early hours of the day, 254 people from 69 families piled their belongings into trucks.
They climbed the trucks and headed south under the protection of members of the local U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led police force to their hometowns in Deir el-Zour.
"I am going back to live my normal life," said Ali Ramadan, 56, who has been living in the camp for seven years.
The man, who is heading to his hometown of Khasham, said he has not seen his mother since then, and his children have grown up during his absence.
This was the 54th group of Syrians to leave the camp over the past few years and the first in 2024, according to the camp’s director, Jihan Hanan.
She told The Associated Press that the camp’s population now is about 42,700.
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