The Al-Hol camp in Syria is surrounded by a series of checkpoints and heavily armed fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces - a Kurdish group that closely controls who enters and leaves the area.
Commander Ghani Ahmed observes a huge area with numerous tents. They are home to 40,000 people. This camp is unique - it is home to family members of fighters of the terrorist group Islamic State. The ARD team visited the site:
The ideology of the jihadists is alive
Gadi Ahmed says he is worried about security in the camp. "The children who grow up here adopt the ideology of the jihadists. That is why they are very dangerous - for Europe and for the world," he says. Al-Hol is a ticking time bomb, especially since the Islamists from "Hayat Tahrir al-Sham" took power in Syria.
In the camp, prisoners walk around freely. Most of the women are almost completely veiled, including Fatma Serhan. She is from Iraq, and her son has been in prison outside the camp for a year and a half. "It's dirty there, there are diseases, everyone is dying of hunger. Why don't they lock me up better? They suspect he's a terrorist."
On the side of the Islamic State to the last
Journalists are not allowed in this prison, but the Kurdish authorities took one prisoner out of Al-Hol to talk to the ARD team.
Mohamed El Misruli studies in the German city of Bochum, has lived in Germany for 11 years, and even married a German woman. In 2012, however, he went to fight in the war on the side of the Islamic State. When the civil war began, Mohammed traveled to the Idlib region, where at that time the Islamic State was trying to establish a "caliphate". There he married a Syrian woman with whom he had children. The camp guards say that El Misrouli was one of the last fighters of the terrorist group to lay down his arms. And that he probably played an important role for the Islamic State.
Now El Misrouli seems to have experienced a catharsis, writes ARD. Today, the man says that all religions should live in peace with each other. "Germany is my country, I want to go back there," he says. The prisoner claims that he is not responsible for the brutal crimes of the Islamic State. "Every country has its own politics. Murders also took place in Germany during Hitler's time.
Foreign fighters are the biggest extremists
The Al-Hol camp is divided into sections, prison director Jihan Hanan told ARD. According to her, the part of the camp where the foreign fighters are housed is the most extremist. "There live absolutely convinced jihadists who believe that they will soon be released and the caliphate will return", she explains. This is about 6,000 supporters of the Islamic State from 42 different countries. Among them are many children born in Al-Hol.
Hanan complains that the international community has abandoned the Kurdish forces to deal with the jihadists in northeastern Syria on their own. "We asked every country to take back their jihadists, but almost no one responded. That's why this camp still exists," the woman says.
Ghani Ahmed says that former foreign fighters in Al-Hol train their children with toy weapons and let them cut off the heads of animals. They also teach them to make landmines. A little boy approaches the camp fence and starts insulting the guards. He says he will kill them because they are infidels.
Are the prisoners planning a revolt?
The Kurdish guards are increasingly worried. During one of the latest searches of the camp, they found underground tunnels and a weapons warehouse. They suspect that the prisoners are planning a revolt, aided by Islamic State sleeper cells from outside. According to data from the US military, such cells are increasingly active. Camp director Hanan told ARD that the prisoners are demanding their release because they believe that "the new Islamist leaders in Damascus will come to release them soon anyway".
The Syrian Kurds played a key role in defeating the Islamic State terrorists. Many of them lost their lives in the battle for the city of Kobani in 2018.
There is absolutely no question of these people being released. However, there are great fears that the jihadists may try to retake northeastern Syria. "If the Islamic State returns, what will happen to me? What will happen to my daughter?", Hanan asks.
Author: Matthias Ebert ARD