Syria deports Tunisians from the Islamic State to their country

The administration of the Roj camp, in the countryside of Al-Malikiyah in Al-Hasakah province, handed over two Tunisian families of ISIS members to the Syrian authorities, in preparation for their return to Tunisia, as part of the ongoing efforts to return foreign nationals detained in camps in northeastern Syria.

Sources following up on the camps file in Syria said  that the extradition took place amid tight security measures and based on understandings between the Autonomous Administration and the Syrian authorities, to ensure the safe transfer of the two families, which included four women and children, as they were transferred from the camp to the Syrian General Security, before being transferred to Damascus to await their official handover to the Tunisian side or to their relatives residing in the capital.

The sources confirmed that the Roj camp currently includes about 2,200 people from 740 families belonging to more than 50 foreign nationalities, as the camp administration focuses its efforts on completing the largest possible deportation of children to their countries of origin to protect them from a closed environment that may reproduce extremist ideology as a result of the continuous friction inside the camp.

The camp administration has warned more than once that children who grow up inside the camp are affected by the prevailing ideas in the camp, and even those who do not adopt these ideas may be affected by them as a result of the continuous contact with the environment, which makes their return to their countries "the most important solution to address this issue and reduce its effects on children", according to the camp administration.

Deportation of foreign nationals from northeast Syria 

Over the past years, the Al-Hol and Roj camps have witnessed one of the largest dismantling and deportation operations in the region, involving tens of thousands of detainees of multiple nationalities, as the response of foreign countries to the file of their nationals varied between very slow and organized action, but recent years have witnessed prominent operations that have returned hundreds of women and children to their countries.

Australian authorities relocated 11 families from Roj camp earlier this year after lengthy negotiations, while Kyrgyzstan carried out one of the largest repatriations in late 2023, involving 31 women and 64 children on a special trip with US logistical support.

 Russia and the Central Asian countries continued their operations in batches, while France, Canada and the European Union remained very limited in their movements, confined to orphans and the most vulnerable humanitarian cases.

Systematic deportation of Iraqis

Iraqis represent the largest bloc that has been relocated in direct coordination between Baghdad, the SDF and the international coalition, and Iraqi reports confirm  that thousands of families have moved from al-Hol camp to al-Jadaa camp in Nineveh through monthly batches ranging from 150 to 700 people, where they underwent security checks and psychological rehabilitation before being reintegrated into their communities of origin.

Reports indicate that this path is the most regular and sustainable, and aims to end the al-Hol file for Iraq completely.

The data show that  the years 2025 and 2026 witnessed  a significant acceleration in the closure of local camps, most notably the closure of Al-Hol camp in February 2026 after the withdrawal of the SDF forces and the Syrian security forces took over the site, which led to the evacuation of its sections and the transfer of the remaining Syrian and Iraqi families.

Information reveals that hundreds of families from Raqqa and Deir Ezzor have left under tribal sponsorships, including a batch of 215 families, and in mid-2026, about 95% of Al-Arisha camp in Al-Hasakah countryside was dismantled, after securing the voluntary return of about 18,000 displaced people to their areas in Deir Ezzor and Raqqa.