Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski met to review bilateral relations between Baghdad and Washington and “ways to enhance them to serve the interests of the two friendly peoples,” the Iraqi foreign ministry said.
During the meeting, “the transfer of families from al-Hol camp to a camp designated for them inside Iraq and the challenges related to this process” were also discussed.
Al-Hol camp is located in Hasaka province and has infamously been branded a breeding ground for ISIS, with authorities describing the sprawling facility as a “ticking time bomb,” saying the situation in the camp is “very dangerous.”
Iraq has over the past year repatriated over 700 families from al-Hol, most of which are sent through a rehabilitation process in Iraq.
Thousands of children of foreign nationals with suspected links to the Islamic State (ISIS) live in northeast Syria’s al-Hol and Roj camps, with human rights groups calling camp conditions “filthy,” “often inhumane,” and “life-threatening.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who control northeast Syria, fought the lion’s share of the battle against ISIS and arrested thousands of the terror group’s fighters along with their wives and children when they crushed ISIS territorially and took the group’s last stronghold in Syria in 2019.
Over 50,000 ISIS-linked people are kept in the notorious al-Hol camp in Hasaka province, while thousands of others are kept in Roj camp.
Kurdish authorities in the region have repeatedly called on the international community to repatriate their nationals from the camps, but their calls have largely gone unanswered as most countries are unwilling to bring back their nationals due to security concerns.