ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq’s justice ministry is intensifying diplomatic efforts to sign agreements with Arab and foreign countries to transfer around 6,000 inmates of 61 nationalities to their home countries, excluding those sentenced to death, the ministry said on Sunday.

"The ministry is currently working to activate diplomatic procedures in cooperation with relevant authorities and to open channels of cooperation with Arab and foreign countries to which approximately 6,000 inmates belong,” ministry spokesperson Ahmed Laibi told the state-owned al-Sabah newspaper.

Laibi said that the efforts are a prelude to concluding agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) that would allow their transfer to serve their sentences in their countries of origin.

“The transfer procedures will include Arab and foreign convicts currently held in Iraqi correctional facilities, with the exception of those sentenced to death,” he added.

The inmates come from 61 Arab and foreign countries, according to the spokesperson, with Syrian nationals constituting the largest group followed by other nationalities, including Morocco, the US, Canada, Russia, Tunisia, and Turkey, “as well as numerous other nationalities from almost every continent."

The move aims to address the increased pressure on the country’s correctional facilities due to the large number of convicts, which is exacerbated by the redistribution of Iraqi inmates among various correctional institutions, Laibi stressed in his remarks.

The ministry’s remarks come as Iraq continues to hold foreign nationals convicted of various offenses in its correctional facilities, adding pressure to its prison capacity, especially after the al-Karkh Central Prison was allocated to accommodate the 6,000 Arab and foreign convicts, according to the ministry.

A large number of the foreign prisoners in Iraq are Islamic State (ISIS)-affiliated individuals who were relocated from Syria following a security breach in ISIS detention facilities in January, where Baghdad agreed to receive 5,700 inmates.