Teenagers from ISIS families receiving treatment at the Al Hol camp in Syria

 

Numerous youngsters have been living in a camp in northeastern Syria for at least four years, raising their families among ISIS fighters while being exposed to the violent ideology of the organization and having little to no possibility of receiving an education.

The Kurdish officials who rule eastern and northern Syria are experimenting with a rehabilitation program aimed at removing youngsters from extremist ideas out of fear that a new generation of militants may emerge from Al Hol camp.

It entails separating kids from their family for an unforeseen amount of time, a practice human rights organizations have expressed concern over.

Even if they are found to be rehabilitated, their future is uncertain because their home nations are hesitant to accept them.

Khaled Remo, co-chair of the office of law and reform affairs in the Kurdish-led government, warned that if the children remained in the camp, a new generation of extremists may emerge who might be even more fervent than the previous ones.

A rehabilitation center that opened late last year, the Orkesh Centre, recently opened its doors to the media. Numerous juvenile males abducted from Al Hol now reside there. They are between the ages of 11 and 18, and they come from roughly 15 different countries, including France and Germany.

Boys at Orkesh receive instruction in music and painting with a tolerance-based curriculum. They acquire knowledge for potential careers as a barber or a tailor. kids get up early, eat breakfast at seven, and then have classes until three. Following school, kids can play basketball and football.

They are expected to maintain order and make their beds in the dormitory-style quarters where they reside. Contact with their parents and siblings is permitted.

Due to privacy concerns, authorities forbade media from speaking to the youngsters at the center.

Residents of Al Hol were unfriendly on a different visit, and none wanted to be interviewed. We also tried contacting the families of the Al Hol inmates, but none of them responded to our requests for comment. Evaluation of the program's efficacy is challenging due to its youth.

Even yet, the center shows how US-backed Kurdish authorities are still dealing with ISIS's legacy years after it was destroyed in a bloody conflict that concluded in 2019.

Al Hol is a gaping hole from that war. There are around 51,000 individuals living in the camp, the most of them are women and children, as well as the spouses, widows, and other relatives of ISIS fighters. The majority come from Syria and Iraq.

However, in a section of the camp known as the Annex, there are also some 8,000 women and children from 60 different nations who reside there. They are typically regarded as the camp dwellers who support ISIS the most fervently.