According to the camp’s director and others with knowledge of it, President Trump’s funding freeze has cast doubt on the future of a camp in the Syrian desert that is home to hundreds of members of the Islamic State group and their families. They described the camp as a possible security issue in the area.
About 39,000 people live in the Al Hol camp, which has been disrupted by a stop to U.S.-funded projects and brief reprieves. The camp is still unsure of its current situation. Another group vital to camp management warned that it may have to stop operations there as early as Monday, despite the interim extensions granted to several programs vital to camp security.
The misunderstanding results from Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s declaration on Monday that he was integrating the US Agency for International Development into the State Department, as well as Mr. Trump’s executive order last month that halted international aid. The goal, according to Elon Musk, head of an administration task team, is to shut down U.S.A.I.D., which provides support for activities in the camp.
At a time when the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad as president of Syria has plunged the nation into turmoil and increased regional instability, Al Hol and a smaller camp called Roj are considered as essential to allaying worries of a return by the Islamic State, or ISIS.
According to an official from the humanitarian relief organization Blumont, which has been contracted to support the camps since 2016, the agency has estimated that it may have to cease operations as early as Monday. In addition to hiring security guards at camp warehouses to safeguard supplies, it hires hundreds of Syrian laborers to supply food, water, sanitary facilities, gasoline, and tents to the camps.
Blumont, a nonprofit organization situated in Virginia, was granted a 15-day exception from the freeze. According to Jihan Hanan, the director of Al Hol, and two program participants who asked not to be named due to the delicate nature of the matter, Proximity International was given a one-month waiver last Friday, just hours before its contract was about to end.
The 90-day funding suspension, according to the Trump administration, is necessary to investigate if American dollars are being squandered. In a statement last month, Mr. Rubio stated that “the answers to three basic questions must be used to justify every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue.” Is America safer as a result? Is America stronger as a result? Does it increase the prosperity of America?
Those who manage the camps argue that their work, which houses war-displaced people and detains ISIS militants, does keep America safer. It is believed that keeping Al Hol secure is crucial to preventing the terrorist organization from recruiting and operating there.
