Tens of thousands of residents have fled Hasakah city since the Islamic State began a surprise offensive there last week, heading north toward the Turkish border to the Kurdish-controlled cities of Qamishli and a-Darbasia.

People's Protection Units (YPG) checkpoints are requiring that IDP's secure a legal “guardian” from those cities if they wish to enter, a local activist was quoted by UK-based al-Araby al-Jadeed as saying Tuesday.

The YPG “demanded that a resident of a-Darabasia come and receive us and become responsible for us,” Laqman al-Haskawi, the alias of an electronics store owner who fled Al-Hasakah city, tells Osama Abu Zeid. “We didn't know anyone in the city so we headed for Qamishli.”

Q: Is it true that the People's Protection Units [YPG] are demanding a “legal guardian” in order to allow internally displaced Syrians into Qamishli?

“It is indeed true, not just in Qamishili but in the city of a-Darbasia as well. Me and my family, along with my four children, experienced this firsthand.”

Q: What exactly happened?

“At first we tried to head towards a-Darabasia. About 20km before we reached it, at the village of Dubak, a YPG checkpoint asked us to get out of the vehicle. They demanded that a resident of a-Darabasia come and receive us and become responsible for us—as a guardian. We didn't know anyone in the city so we left and headed to Qamishli.

At one of the checkpoints at the city’s entrance, we were asked for detailed personal information, which they wrote down. Afterwards they asked that we get onto buses that are set aside for transport into Qasmishli. But we were surprised by the fact that they took us to the Nuruz camp in the village of al-Malikiya (Deirik) on the Turkish border.”