Iraq brings home 160 families from Syria refugee camp

BAGHDAD (AFP): Nearly 160 Iraqi families have been repatriated from Syria’s Al-Hol camp, home to tens of thousands of people including family members of suspected extremists, an Iraqi government spokesman said Sunday.

More than 43,000 Syrians, Iraqis, and foreigners from at least 45 countries are held in the squalid and overcrowded camp in Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria.

Al-Hol houses relatives of suspected ISIS militants alongside refugees.

“157 families, or 625 people” had returned to Iraq from Al-Hol on Saturday in the latest repatriation effort, Ali Abbas, spokesman for Iraq’s migration ministry, told AFP.

Upon arrival in Iraq, authorities usually keep returnees from Al-Hol for weeks or even months at what officials describe as a “psychological rehabilitation” facility in Al-Jadaa, south of Mosul, where they also undergo security checks.

More than 1,920 Iraqi families have been transferred so far to Al-Jadaa, national security adviser Qassem al-Araji said on March 2.

The figure includes 1,230 families who had been allowed to return home, Araji said.

Repatriation of family members of suspected ISIS members has stirred controversy in Iraq, where the extremist group had seized large swathes of land before being defeated in late 2017.

Some Iraqis have resisted the repatriation efforts, saying they do not want ISIS families among them.

Still, Baghdad regularly repatriates its citizens from Al-Hol, a policy commended by the United Nations and the United States.

Despite its territorial defeat, ISIS militants continue to conduct attacks against civilians and security forces in both Iraq and Syria.