ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq on Wednesday repatriated over 600 women and children linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) from the notorious al-Hol camp in northeast Syria.
A total of 607 individuals left al-Hol, the camp management said, adding the transfer was done via buses provided by the Iraqi government, with US forces escorting the repatriated until reaching the Iraqi border.
"The coordination process is ongoing between the Autonomous Administration and the Iraqi government to repatriate all Iraqi citizens to their homeland,” Shukri al-Haji, head of the Exit Office at the camp, told North Press Agency, affiliated with Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Today’s repatriation is the sixth of its kind this year and the 22nd ever since Iraq began repatriating its nationals years ago.
On February 9, Iraq received the fifth batch of ISIS families from the Hol camp, comprising 569 individuals.
Iraq’s efforts to repatriate its citizens from Syria’s al-Hol camp, a complex hub housing families linked to ISIS alongside refugees, are mired in severe financial shortfalls and multifaceted security challenges.
This issue led the Ministry of Migration and Displaced Persons to propose halting repatriation operations due to a lack of allocated funds, especially following the cessation of American aid that had supported these efforts.
Iraq's National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji said last month that 12,000 Iraqi nationals had been returned from the al-Hol camp, while around 3,000 Iraqi "terrorists" were brought back from northern Syrian prisons.
Located in the Hasakah province in northern Syria, Al-Hol is one of the largest camps, hosting approximately 40,000 displaced people from nationalities, including families of Iraqi, Syrian, and foreign ISIS militants.
Iraq and the UN have an agreement to return Iraqi nationals from Syria’s al-Hol camp by 2027.
Local Kurdish authorities repeatedly called on the international community to repatriate their nationals from the camp but to no avail. The camp management has said they would shut down camps in northeastern Syria this year.
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