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Iraq
A person suspected of being related to ISIS fighters looks on before being released from al-Hol camp on January 19, 2021. Photo: Delil Souleiman/AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraq’s deputy minister of displacement and migration told Iraqi state media on Monday that Baghdad is against the “dangerous” return of Iraqis from al-Hol camp in northeast Syria (Rojava).
“Al-Hol camp has fallen victim to the Islamic State (ISIS) and has become a main breeding ground for the re-emergence of the terrorist group,” Karim Nuri told state media, describing the camp as a “ticking time bomb.”
“A decision has not been made regarding the return of Iraqis displaced in al-Hol camp, and there has been refusal to repatriate them because of the danger they impose,” Nuri added.
Approximately 68,000 people – Syrians, Iraqis, and foreigners – are held in al-Hol camp in Hasaka province. Most are the wives and children of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters. Some 43,000 of them are children.
The camp is run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has repeatedly warned of a volatile security situation and its limited capacity to control camp residents.
The United Nations (UN) on Thursday reported 12 murders had taken place at the camp in just over two weeks, sounding the alarm over an "increasingly untenable" security situation.
In regards to the SDF’s plans for Iraqis at the camp, the Rojava Information Center told Rudaw English in October that “the aim remains for there to be repatriation to Iraqi territory and they (Rojava administration) are appealing to the Iraqi government to act on this – the Iraqi government has not gotten back to them for a year.”
“They (Rojava administration) will not force anyone who does not want to, to leave the camp,” the center added.
SDF special forces arrested a smuggler on the Iraqi border trafficking ISIS members from the camp, the SDF’s Coordination and Military Operations Center tweeted on Monday.
Security guards often come under attack from camp residents, and Iraqis have also been targeted in a wave of attacks.
A 17-year-old was found dead by internal security forces (Asayish) on January 3. She had been shot in several areas “by unknown forces,” North Press Agency reported a medical source from the Kurdish Red Crescent as saying.
Two Iraqi refugees were killed in two different attacks in October, the SDF-affiliated Hawar News reported.
An Iraqi woman was found strangled with an electric cable in September. Her brother was allegedly also killed by ISIS women in the camp.
Another Iraqi refugee was killed with a silenced pistol after being shot four times on August 16, according to Hawar News. Three people were wounded in an “armed attack” on August 13, it added.
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