Since the fall of the so-called Islamic State in Syria, Kurdish-run prisons have held about 8,000 suspected Islamic State fighters and about 34,000 of their family members.
But instability in the region is growing as the central government in Damascus looks to extend control across Syria, including the autonomous Kurdish region in the northeast.
Over the past two weeks, government forces have driven the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from the resource-rich region they have controlled for a decade since defeating Islamic State.
If this area becomes a battlefield, will the gates remain locked? BBC correspondent Orla Guerin visited Roy camp, near the border with Turkey and Iraq, where the wives and children of suspected Islamic State militants are being held.
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