ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Baghdad is preparing to repatriate the remaining Iraqi families from notorious al-Hol camp in northeast Syria amid growing security concerns following recent developments in the country, a high-ranking Iraqi security source told Rudaw on Monday.
“We are preparing to return all Iraqi families remaining inside al-Hol camp to Iraq as soon as possible,” the source said.
Iraqi interior minister and acting minister of migration and displaced Abdul-Amir al-Shammari is overseeing the process and is scheduled to visit the Jadaa camp in Nineveh province on Monday.
The camp has been designated as the main rehabilitation center for families returning from al-Hol before they are eventually sent back to their hometowns in Iraq.
Al-Hol camp, located southeast of Hasaka in northeastern Syria (Rojava) and managed by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), hosts tens of thousands of people, including the spouses and children of former Islamic State (ISIS) militants.
The camp has long been notorious for dire living conditions and the presence of radicalized individuals, earning a reputation as a potential incubator for extremism. Iraqis and Syrians constitute the majority of its residents, though thousands of people from other countries who joined ISIS or lived under its rule also remain in the camp.
Iraqi officials say the unstable security situation in Syria has prompted an acceleration of the repatriation plan. The security source warned that “it is unknown what will happen in the near future because the situation in Syria is unstable, and we must prepare ourselves for all possibilities.”
Concerns about the safety of the camp have intensified after the Syrian Arab Army attacked the SDF positions in the Kurdish-controlled areas in Rojava.
Sheikhmous Ahmed, who oversees camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees in Rojava, told Rudaw that “due to attacks by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham [HTS] militants [who are a now major part of the Syrian interim government], there is a serious threat to the camps and prisons holding ISIS militants, because those attackers are just like ISIS.”
Iraqi officials say only a small number of families remain in al-Hol.
“Fewer than 100 Iraqi families remain in al-Hol camp, and they will be repatriated together as the final convoy.” He added that “preparations are beginning, and it is scheduled that the repatriation of all of them will start at the beginning of next month,” Ali Jahangir, spokesperson for the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement, told Rudaw on Monday,
Since the start of the repatriation program, 31 convoys of Iraqi citizens have returned from al-Hol.
According to Jahangir, the total number of Iraqis repatriated so far “has reached approximately 21,000 Iraqi citizens,” all of whom were first transferred to Jadaa camp for rehabilitation before being returned to their areas of origin.
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