Iraq suspends repatriations from Syria's notorious Islamic State camp al-Hol
Iraq’s new government is rethinking how to deal with the thousands of Iraqis stuck for years in northeastern Syria's al-Hol camp.
ERBIL — 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 Islamic State fighters, 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.
