Al-Hawl refugee camp

[4] As of February 2021, the camp's population was more than 60,000[5] 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.

[5] An estimate in September 2019 indicated that the camp held about 20,000 women and 50,000 children from the former Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) guarded by 400 SDF militia fighters.

Conditions along the road to the camp, including in screening centers for ISIL operatives, have been described as "extremely harsh" with limited food, water, shelter and no health services.

As of 4 February 2019, at least 35 children and newborns had also reportedly died either en route or shortly after arriving in the camp, mostly due to hypothermia.

"[25] In a report published in April 2019, BBC journalist Quentin Sommerville described the camp as "an overflowing vessel of anger and unanswered questions," where some women "cling to their hate-fuelled ideology, others beg for a way out - a way home."

[26] A report in The Washington Post from September 2019 describes the increased radicalization within the camp where conditions are dismal, security lax, and people who do not follow ISIL ideology live in fear.

[28] In October 2020, SDF announced plans to free thousands of Syrians held at the Al-Hawl refugee camp.

The Australian government has lacked the political will to repatriate its nationals from Syria in fear of bringing radicalized individuals into the country.

[33] Finland has said (as of Q3 2023) that it is unable to repatriate remaining children that have a Finnish parent mainly due to their mothers' lack of cooperation.