Al-Hol Camp: Over 15000 transferred to Nineveh

Shafaq News/ On Thursday, the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement announced that thousands of people have been transferred from Syria’s Al-Hol camp to Iraq.

Ali Abbas Jahankiz, a spokesperson for the ministry, confirmed to Shafaq News that more than 15,000 Iraqis have been relocated from Al-Hol to the Al-Jad’ah camp in Nineveh, with the majority being women and children. He also noted that over 12,600 individuals remain in Al-Hol, awaiting their transfer to Iraq in scheduled batches.

"The transfer schedule is determined by the authorities managing Al-Hol camp," Jahankiz stated.

Since 2021, the Iraqi government, in cooperation with international organizations, has been working to repatriate Iraqi families from the camp. These families are then sent to the Al-Jad’ah camp for social and psychological rehabilitation. However, the process has faced ongoing objections from local communities, particularly from families in Nineveh who have lost relatives to ISIS. These families express concerns about the return of the displaced to their areas.

Earlier this month, Hussein Al-Amiri, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s security and defense committee, confirmed that the repatriation of some Iraqi families from the Al-Hol and Al-Hasakah camps followed an earlier agreement between the Iraqi government and the United Nations.

Al-Hol, located in Syria’s al-Hasakah province near the Iraqi border, is one of the largest refugee camps and is under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The camp houses around 36,000 people, mainly women and children from families of ISIS members. International reports suggest that ISIS continues to use the camp as an informal base for re-recruitment and spreading its ideology.