Iraq brings home almost 700 more citizens linked to ISIS from Syrian camp

Iraq has repatriated around 700 of its citizens linked to the Islamic State group, mostly women and children, from al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria, VOA reported yesterday.

According to Iraq’s Ministry of Migration, the repatriated individuals will undergo a rehabilitation program near Mosul to distance them from extremist ideology.

Despite an aggressive repatriation campaign, Iraqis remain the largest nationality among the nearly 43,000 residents of the camp, with Syrians being the second-largest of the total 57 other nationalities.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s Yazidi community has expressed concerns over the repatriations of IS families fearing a repetition of the extremist massacre against the community that took place in 2014. Then, IS militants killed thousands of men and took many women and teenage girls who were held as sex slaves.