18. Originally established by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as a refugee camp in 1991 and expanded during the Iraq war from 2003, the al Hol camp is a substantial facility which has been under SDF control following the capture of the region from ISIL in 2015. Following the effective defeat of ISIL in March 2019, the size of the camp has been increased dramatically to hold approximately 20,000 women and 50,000 children formerly living in the captured ISIL stronghold of Al Baghuz Fawqani. Al Hol – ‘The Swamp’ in Arabic - covers about 2.5 square kilometres (around the size of Monaco and larger than the City of London, but is much more crowded than either), with a population density of around 36,000 per square kilometre – over three times that of New York City. 19. More than a third of the total population of the al Hol camp is younger than 5 years old. The camp contains a self-contained section – referred to as the al Hol Annex – which houses foreign (non-Syrian or Iraqi) nationals: approximately 4,000 women and 7,000 children drawn from as many as 50 countries. 20. The majority of those foreign detainees in the al Hol Annex were formerly living in Al Baghuz Fawqani, the location of the territorial last stand of the ISIL forces in eastern Syria. Some have characterized the detainees as containing a proportion of women who were, and remain, deeply committed to the ISIL cause, and there have been reports of an atmosphere of fear in the camp, since compliance with ISIL’s rules (on dress, for instance) is still enforced by some. RSI and has observed, and been repeatedly informed, that the atmosphere in the al Hol camp – particularly the al Hol Annex – is extremely tense, and there is a high level of violence, leading to particular restrictions imposed by SDF camp officials on access and delivery of services. Children playing in al Hol camp 12 RIGHTS & SECURITY INTERNATIONAL