Iraqi Government Calls on 60 Countries to Repatriate Their ISIS-Member Citizens

The government of Iraq has asked all sixty countries whose citizens are living in the camp of the families of the radical Sunni group of ISIS to repatriate them as soon as possible.

This camp, which lies in northern Syria, near the Iraqi border, is scheduled to be closed soon.

More details in the following report:

For a long time, the Iraqi authorities have repeatedly called for the dismantling of the al-Hol camp in Syria, urging all heads of states to evacuate their nationals from the settlement, and warning against the risk of harboring extremism and spreading hatred if the activities in the camp continue.

So far only twenty-four countries have started repatriating their citizens from the al-Hol refugee camp, said Qasim al-Araji, Iraq’s national security advisor in a post on X.

He appreciated Russia, which recently returned thirty-two children between the ages of five and seventeen to their country.

Two days ago, the US Department of State announced that the United States has returned eleven of its citizens and six Canadian children from camps in northeastern Syria.

Of the eleven US citizens who were repatriated, ten belonged to the same family. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement on Tuesday that this was the largest number of US citizens ever returned to the US from Syrian camps.

Two weeks ago, Tajikistan returned about 50 other Tajik women and children from Syria to their country. These were the wives and children of Tajik fighters who disappeared or were killed in the wars of the extremist Sunni group ISIS in Syria and Iraq in the 2010s, the last group of Tajik women and children who were returned to Tajikistan from Syria.

It should be mentioned that approximately 50,000 people, mostly children, from 60 different countries are stranded in the two densely populated camps of Al-Hol and Roj in Syria.

Half of them, who are Syrian and Iraqi refugees, live in Al-Hol camp.

The al-Hol and Roj camps are run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which fought the hardline Sunni group ISIS for years until their fall in early 2019.

Some countries have refused to repatriate their citizens from these camps.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in his statement on Tuesday: “The only lasting solution to the humanitarian and security crisis in the refugee camps and detention centers in Syria is for countries to repatriate their nationals and rehabilitate them so that they can become members of society again.”