Some 6,000 Iraqi families remain in Syria’s al-Hol

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq has repatriated over 1,500 families from al-Hol camp in Syria and about 6,000 others remain to be brought back, an official from the ministry of migration and the displaced told Rudaw on Saturday.

“So far, about 1,560 Iraqi families have been returned from al-Hol camp, and about 5,500 to 6,000 families remain to be returned,” Ali Abbas, spokesperson for the ministry of migration and the displaced told Rudaw’s Nahro Mohammed.

Iraqis made up more than half of the population of al-Hol camp in Rojava’s Hasaka province. The camp houses over 50,000 people, most of whom are wives and children of the Islamic State (ISIS) fighters.

Abbas said that the repatriation continues and soon another group will be returned. 

“Following security checks, they are sent to the al-Jada camp in Nineveh for rehabilitation and reintroducing them to society, and later they will be sent back to their hometowns,” 

Iraqi Migration and the Displaced Minister Ivan Fayaq told reporters in December that the repatriation of families from Syria will continue throughout 2024.

Fayaq said that the repatriations will focus on women and children who have “no connection to ISIS at all.”

According to documentation from the al-Jada camp that Rudaw English had seen in November, the majority of the families originally come from Iraq’s western Anbar province. Over half of the people in the camp are female, and more than 60 percent are under 18 years of age.

The repatriation of ISIS-linked citizens has sparked opposition in Iraq, with tribes unwilling to accept and welcome people associated with the group that committed atrocious human rights abuses and war crimes from 2014 to 2017, when they controlled vast swathes of the country.

Iraq has also brought home men accused of fighting for ISIS. Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told American officials in June that Baghdad had returned around 3,000 ISIS-affiliated Iraqi fighters who had been detained in northeast Syria (Rojava). Most have been put on trial. The fighters had been arrested by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).