‘Guantanamo on an epic scale’: Life inside ISIS detention camps in Syria

About 10 miles west of the Iraqi border sits the sprawling camp called al-Hol, which was named after a nearby town.

After passing miles of empty, green plains and a few checkpoints guarded by armed men, rows upon rows of white tents appear, with some bearing the logos of the United Nations Refugee Agency, the UNHCR. 

Barbed wire and watch towers separate the camp from the outside world.

Men in military uniforms guard the entrance. Balaclavas cover their faces and they carry guns, while a badge on their uniforms reads “ISIS hunters.” 

ISIS no longer holds territory here but attacks like the one recently on a concert hall in Russia indicate that the group is still capable of large-scale attacks. In Syria, where ISIS originated, it continues to be active. One strategy to contain ISIS has been to hold upwards of 60,000 people with suspected ISIS ties in about two dozen detention and rehabilitation camps.

When The World visited the camp in March, the guards asked for papers before allowing entrance into the camps (with two armed guards as escorts). Journalists can’t walk around here without protection.

Violence is part of daily life, said one camp official who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak with the media. Sometimes, residents with more radical views and stronger support for ISIS want to impose their ideology on others, she said. 

ISIS members follow Jihadi-Salafist ideology — a Sunni fundamentalist movement. In 2014, ISIS fighters captured territory in Iraq and Syria and established what they called a caliphate, which is an Islamic society run by Sharia law.

The camp deals daily with crime and personal disputes. In 2021, the charity Save The Children described this place as one of the most-dangerous in the world. Security has improved somewhat since then, camp officials say.

On the surface, life goes on. 

At a market selling everything from fresh herbs to hair dye and nail clippers, women wearing black from head-to-toe inspected the products.

Their faces were covered but some had a look of exhaustion in their eyes.

About half of the 40,000 people who live here are children, according to the United Nations. 

One woman who was holding a baby girl said her daughter has been sick for days.

An older man complained about the lack of health care at the camp. In the summer, temperatures rise to more than 100 degrees and the tents have no cooling systems. 

The Kurdish administration that controls northeastern Syria oversees these camps.

Jinan Hanna, who works with the administration in charge of al-Hol, said that these camps need protection. 

“ISIS is not gone,” she said. “They are still active in the camps and outside.”

Hanna said that the Kurds have fought shoulder to shoulder with the Americans against ISIS, and that protecting these camps is the “human and ethical thing to do.” 

But since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza, militia groups in Iraq who oppose US support for Israel have targeted American forces based in Syria.

These attacks have once again raised questions about whether the US should remain in Syria.

According to a recent report by Amnesty International, the US is involved in most aspects of the detention system. It funds everything from building these facilities to repairing them and training security guards. 

Some detainees told Amnesty International they were tortured and mistreated.

The World reached out to the State Department. Officials said they were “deeply concerned about human rights abuses in Syria.”  

“We continue to urge all actors in Syria to respect human rights, treat all detainees humanely, protect civilians, and respond appropriately to allegations of abuse and civilian harm,” they wrote. 

They also urged countries to take back their citizens.

Hanna said the departure of the American military would cause a lot of problems with security at the camp. 

“We, the Kurds, are guarding our enemy,” she said.

Life at Roj camp

On a rainy day at Roj camp, a woman named Wajda sat in a dark, damp tent filled on one side with pots and pans for her makeshift kitchen.

“I have never ever done anything to hurt anybody anywhere,” said Wajda, who did not want to use her full name in this story or provide specific details about her past because she said that she has pending legal cases.

She lived in al-Hol for three years before being transferred about a year ago to Roj camp, the second-largest in Syria, which is located about two hours north.

Roj holds about 3,000 foreign families of ISIS; 65% of them are children, according to the United Nations. There are women and children here from South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as others.

Wajda said she was born and raised in the United Kingdom, and then moved to the city of Baghouz in Syria, where she got injured in an explosion. A piece of shrapnel cut through her back.

“I was in a coma. I could talk no more. I could walk no more,” she said. 

After three weeks in a coma, Wajda woke up to learn that she was partially paralyzed. She could not remember some names, she said. Her speech was slurred.

To this day, she said, she suffers from pain. She apologized frequently for talking slowly.

Wajda’s 7-year-old son was born under ISIS. She said he’s only known a life of fear, displacement and stigma. She doesn’t let him play outside much because it’s too dangerous, she said. 

“I really want to go home so he can start school, have friends. He’s my son, so I want the best for him.” 

She keeps that hope alive to stave off feelings of depression, she said. 

‘It’s like Guantanamo on an epic scale’ 

Several countries have taken back their citizens, including the US, which has repatriated 40 citizens since 2016, according to the State Department.  

But many still remain in limbo at these camps. 

Thanassis Cambanis is the director of Century International, a progressive think tank based in New York.

“No one wants to take these people back,” Cambanis said. “And we end up with this very jury-rigged arrangement where the US, working with Syrian Kurds, has set up a ‘statelet’ whose main strategic benefit to the US — and to many others — is that it acts as an indefinite holding pen for ISIS people.”

Cambanis said that some of these people are genuinely committed ISIS members who believe in the ideology, and some even look forward to having another chance to establish a caliphate.

“But this is how society works. We don’t get to just park in a twilight zone of 50,000 or 65,000 people who have beliefs that we don’t like.”

He compares these camps to Guantanamo, but the difference is that in Syria, there are thousands of women and children locked up at these camps.

“It’s like Guantanamo on an epic scale,” he said. “To have this many people who are basically told that the plan is forever for them and their kids to live without any legal status, and they’ve neither been convicted of any crimes, nor in many cases, are even allowed to get passports to countries they’re from.”

Instead, countries should set up a process, he said, to identify criminals among the camp population and charge and prosecute them in courts.

Outside Wajda’s tent, the rain didn’t stop the kids from playing.

When the kids spotted a plane flying above — likely an American one, given the proximity of the camp to American bases — they waved.

One yelled that maybe the plane would swoop down and rescue his friends from the camp.

And they all laughed.