Syria began evacuating remaining residents of Al-Hol camp, which long housed relatives of suspected ISIL fighters, as it empties the formerly the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-controlled facility, two officials told AFP.
Al-Hol, located in a desert region of Hasakeh province, had been Syria's largest camp housing relatives of suspected IS fighters.
Last month, the government took over the camp from its Kurdish administrators, who had long run it, as the SDF ceded territory and Damascus extended its control across swathes of Syria's northeast.
Since then, thousands of family members of foreign jihadists have left the camp for unknown destinations.
The facility had housed some 24,000 people, mostly Syrians but also Iraqis and more than 6,000 other foreigners of around 40 nationalities.
Fadi al-Qassem, the official appointed by the government to manage Al-Hol's affairs, told AFP that "we carried out an evaluation of the camp's needs and found the camp lacks the basic conditions for habitation, so we made an urgent decision" to move residents to camps in Aleppo province.
Al-Hol camp "will be fully evacuated within a week, and nobody will remain", he said, adding that "the evacuation started today.”
A government source told AFP on condition of anonymity that "the emergencies and disaster management ministry is working now to evacuate Al-Hol camp" and take residents to a camp in Akhtarin, in the north of Aleppo province.
Vehicles carrying camp residents have already departed for Aleppo province, the source added.
Last week, humanitarian sources told AFP that most foreign families had left the Al-Hol camp since the departure of the SDF forces who previously guarded it, and that the overall camp population had plummeted.
Meanwhile, Australia barred one of its citizens from returning home from a Syrian detention camp because of security concerns.
The unidentified person was among a group of 34 Australian women and children at the Roj camp related to suspected members of the ISIL terrorist organization.
"I can confirm that one individual in this cohort has been issued a temporary exclusion order, which was made on advice from security agencies," Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said in a statement sent to AFP.
