ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s national security advisor on Thursday praised the repatriation and rehabilitation process of Iraqi nationals from the notorious al-Hol camp in northeast Syria which houses tens of thousands of Islamic State (ISIS) affiliates.
“The number of families who went back to their places of origin is around 600, and until now we have not received a single complaint about their presence in their areas,” National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji said during the Iraq Forum 2023 in Baghdad, urging the need to protect Iraqis, particularly children, who remain languishing in the camp.
Araji added that Iraq has “welcomed” nine large batches of nationals home from al-Hol camp, all of whom have successfully undergone rehabilitation and are now residing in their places of origin.
“The al-Hol camp … is a ticking time bomb. If a ticking time bomb exists in a place, do we wait or do we work to defuse the bomb?” Araji said about the camp, infamously regarded as a place where ISIS sleeper cells operate and spread the terror group’s ideology.
While the international community has largely been unwilling to repatriate its nationals from the squalid camp, Araji noted that countries are starting to open up to that prospect.
“Many of the world’s countries now have started to repatriate their nationals from al-Hol camp,” he said.
Iraqis have made up more than half of the population of al-Hol camp in Rojava’s Hasaka province for years. The camp houses over 50,000 residents, most of which are wives and children of the ISIS fighters.
Iraq has over the past year repatriated over 700 families from al-Hol, most of which are sent through a rehabilitation process in Iraq.
The infamous camp is known for having a strong network with remaining ISIS groups on the loose, and it is often suspected to be an arena for ISIS operations.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in cooperation with the US-led Coalition forces has on several occasions conducted wide security operations in the camp, arresting several ISIS members.
The SDF arrested thousands of ISIS fighters and their wives and children when they took control of the group's last stronghold in Syria in March 2019.
Thomas Rowekamp, a member of the German parliament, praised his country’s role in the fight against ISIS and affirmed that German support for Iraq will continue.
“The German government, together with 85 other international partners, we supported the ISF [Iraqi Security Forces] in this fight, and it was successful. Daesh [Arabic acronym for ISIS] has been defeated but it has not disappeared,” Rowekamp said.
The lawmaker added that Germany, which currently provides support to the Iraqi army and Peshmerga in an advisory role, is willing to provide further support to Iraq if Baghdad requests it to do so.
The German military has been an essential member of the global coalition against ISIS and has a solid presence in the Kurdistan Region. In late October, the German parliament voted to extend its military mandate to the country by a year to continue its advisory role against the threat of ISIS.
The German government decided on January 12 to end its military mission in Syria but keep up to 500 soldiers in Iraq until the end of October 2022. The government sent a motion to the parliament which voted in favor of the extension of troops mandate in Iraq.
Germany has been an essential member of the global coalition against ISIS. The Coalition was formally established in October 2014, after ISIS took control of vast swathes of territories in Iraq and Syria. Consisting of 84 nations, the US-led Coalition’s mission has been “degrading and ensuring Daesh’s enduring defeat,” it says on its website, using Arabic acronym for the extremist group.
