Syria: 18,000 waiting in Al-Hol camp to go back to Iraq

At least 18,000 Iraqis are waiting to return to their country from Syria’s Al-Hol Camp, run by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as part of the gradual return of citizens by the Iraqi authorities. Relief and security agencies in Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq are awaiting their arrival.

The return of the Iraqi citizens from Al-Hol is taking place intermittently due to security checks carried out by Baghdad. Once back across the border, they are taken to Al-Jadaa Camp south of Mosul, where they undertake psychological, social and educational rehabilitation courses before being allowed to return to their homes which they left before Daesh occupied them in 2014.

According to the spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement, Ali Abbas, a new group of between 150 and 160 Iraqi families from Al-Hol will be returned to Iraq soon. Abbas told journalists in Baghdad on Saturday that they will be the seventeenth group to return in a process that has been ongoing for two years. Most of those in the previous groups were women and children.

Al-Hol Camp has about 40,000 people in it, most but not all of whom are Iraqis and Syrians. It is one of two camps — the other is Roj Camp — in which the SDF are holding members of the families of Daesh fighters who were killed, arrested or disappeared.

Former Nineveh Provincial Council member Mohammed Al-Hadidi told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani continues to implement the voluntary return of Iraqis from Al-Hol Camp to Iraq. He added that the return of all Iraqi citizens from the camp “will help reduce its danger,” as Iraq sees it as “an environment conducive for the growth of extremism and hatred and does not help children grow up in a healthy way.”

Al-Hadidi explained further that, “The programme implemented by the Iraqi government aims to fully rehabilitate the concerned individuals for a six-month period before allowing them to return to their [original] cities. The security checks that the families undergo [in Al-Hol Camp] before their return prevents any security breach that may result from the process of returning the families.”

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