JAKARTA - The government prioritizes the verification process and citizenship status of the former Al-Hol Camp in Syria, before further discussing the repatriation process to the country.
This was said by the Acting Director of Indonesian Migrant Protection of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Heni Hamidah, regarding the repatriation of those who claimed to be from Indonesia out of Al-Hol Camp.
The Al-Hol or Al-Hawl refugee camp located on the southern outskirts of the city of Al-Hawl in northern Syria, near the Syrian-Iraqi border, is known to have housed thousands of refugees, mostly children and women, associated with suspected members of the ISIS group from various countries.
Along with the takeover of the territory by the Syrian Government forces from the Kurdish forces last month, many refugees in Camp Al-Hol fled.
"So far, we prioritize the process of verifying and deepening the citizenship status and knowing the level of radicalism of these individuals first," explained Heni in a short message to VOI.id, as quoted on Friday (20/2).
"Based on the data and the results of the in-depth investigation, the decision to repatriate will be discussed further through cross-ministerial and inter-agency coordination after the verification of identity, citizenship status and security risks are completely clear, including the possibility of legal proceedings," said Heni.
Previously, Heni said his party had "received reports from the Indonesian Embassy in Damascus regarding a number of individuals claiming to be from Indonesia who have left the Al-Hol Camp in Syria.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with the FTF (Foreign Terrorist Fighter BNPT) Task Force abroad has coordinated with the Ministry of Law to verify their citizenship and also their citizenship status," said Heni in a press statement in Jakarta Thursday.
"If it's about the number, if from the FTF task force there are 182 people who have been in accordance with the population data in Indonesia," he said.
However, Heni said his party would coordinate further to ensure their citizenship "for further processes."
Heni added that based on information from the Indonesian Embassy in Damascus, there were 280 individuals who claimed to be from Indonesia and left Camp Al-Hol.
Al-Hol, the largest refugee camp in eastern Syria, hosts tens of thousands of people, including Syrian internally displaced persons and family members of former fighters suspected of being involved in ISIS, UN News reported.
UN agencies have long warned that insecurity, overcrowding and limited services leave residents - many of them women and children - in a particularly vulnerable state.
The camp is run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The number of residents has dropped drastically from around 24,000 earlier this year, including around 6,000 foreign nationals suspected of being linked to former ISIS fighters, to around a few thousand, as quoted by Al Jazeera.
In detail, the number of people in Al-Hol Camp in January this year includes: 14,500 Syrians, 4,000 Iraqis, and around 6,200 people from various countries, with more than 95 percent of them being women and children, according to Save the Children.
The SDF maintained control of al-Hol during the last years of the al-Assad regime in Syria, which finally fell in December 2024.
Syrian government security forces entered Al-Hol Camp on January 21 to take control of the location.
Details and reports about how families and individuals left the camps, which at their peak in 2019 housed some 73,000 families, are conflicting.
In 2019, ISIS was defeated in Syria by a US-led coalition, which included the SDF. Al-Hol, located in Hasakah Province, was later established by the SDF after it seized most of northeastern Syria, with support from the US.
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