At least 157 Iraqi families, or 625 people, were repatriated from the Syrian Al-Hol camp, which notably houses relatives of jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group, Iraqi authorities announced on Sunday.
As part of the latest repatriation effort,
“157 families, or 625 people”
returned to Iraq on Saturday from Al-Hol, Ali Abbas, spokesperson for the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displaced Persons, told AFP.
More than 43,000 people live in the dilapidated and overcrowded Al-Hol camp, under Kurdish administration.
These include displaced Syrians, Iraqi refugees and thousands of foreigners from at least 45 countries, including families of IS jihadists.
The return to Iraq of relatives of jihadists continues to cause controversy among a population part of which was martyred for three years by the abuses of ISIS, an ultraradical organization which occupied up to a third of Iraqi territory from 2014 and until 2017.
Read alsoAl-Hol, in Syria, last enclave of the “caliphate”
To moderate the hostility that may await these families returning from Syria, they are first accommodated in Al-Jadaa, south of Mosul, where they should follow, according to officials,
"psychological rehabilitation"
aimed at ensuring that they They pose no danger, apart from security checks.
Iraqi National Security Advisor Qassem Al-Araji said on March 2 that more than 1,920 Iraqi families had been transferred to Al-Jadaa.
Of this total, 1,230 families were authorized to return home, he said.
Despite repeated calls from the Kurdish administration, most Western countries refuse to repatriate their citizens from these camps, for fear of possible terrorist acts on their soil.
Iraq is one of the rare countries to regularly repatriate its nationals from Al-Hol, a commitment welcomed by both the UN and the United States.