(CTV) It took time and patience to negotiate access to the al-Hawl refugee camp in eastern Syria. A few cups of tea, a group photo with a Kurdish intelligence officer, and after a couple days, permission was granted.
Al-Hawl is a vast sprawl of tents providing shelter to more than 40,000 people, including the families of ISIS fighters —the so-called “Brides of Isis.” It is a favourite term in the British tabloids.
We went looking for Canadians.
After crossing from northern Iraq, it took five hours of slow driving to get to the camp, across lush green land dotted with oil wells and Kurdish military checkpoints. Many checkpoints.
When ISIS fighters swept into Iraq and Syria in 2014, seemingly out of nowhere, a good part of this territory rapidly surrendered.
