Authorities in northeastern Syria have announced plans to grant amnesty to thousands of Syrians held at a detention camp, mostly women and children, and allow them to return to their families. Al-Hol camp west of Hasakah city houses over 60,000 people, including civilians displaced by the Islamic State’s (IS) war in neighboring Iraq as well as in Syria.

Many are thought to be families of IS fighters. Some of the women actively participated in their self-declared caliphate’s barbaric rule. Others were innocents forced to flee along with the jihadis as the US-led coalition and their Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) partners drove them out of one town after the other, culminating in their defeat at their last stronghold in Baghouz in March 2019.

The decision was announced on Oct. 3 in Raqqa by Ilham Ahmed, head of the SDF’s civilian arm, the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC).

Conditions at al-Hol are notoriously bad. The camp is overcrowded and underequipped. Sanitation is poor and health care almost nonexistent. Riots have frequently erupted among residents. IS women have sought to impose their own rule, meting out punishment to those who disobey. An unknown number have escaped. The SDF has long complained that it lacks the financial means to sustain al-Hol and other internment camps. Attempted breakouts have become routine.