Iraq suspends repatriations from Syria’s notorious ISIS camp al-Hol

Iraq’s new government seems to be taking the issue of thousands of its citizens still in a camp across the border in Syria seriously and has focused on it in meetings in the very first days of its mandate.

Exactly when it plans to bring most of them home and how it will reintegrate them, especially given the stigma attached to their perceived or actual ties to former ISIS terrorists, is not for the moment clear.

After the government under Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani was sworn in Oct. 27, on Nov. 2 Minister of Migration and Displacement Evan Faeq suspended the return of displaced Iraqis from the Syrian al-Hol camp.

Faeq, who held the same position in former Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s government, said that she was suspending the repatriations until “a new mechanism” for their return and reintegration is created.

There are no official figures available on the number of people still in al-Hol and many there have no identification documents.

In October, Iraq reportedly brought back over 600 of its nationals from across the border.