Iraq denies reports of plans to confine thousands of displaced families from Syria

Iraq's Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM) on Saturday denied recent reports that Iraq was preparing to transfer large numbers of displaced families with perceived ties to the Islamic State from al-Hol camp in Syria to be confined in displacement camps south of Mosul.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq's Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM) on Saturday denied recent reports that Iraq was preparing to transfer large numbers of displaced families with perceived ties to the Islamic State from al-Hol camp in Syria to be confined in displacement camps south of Mosul. 

“Any news of transferring ISIS families from Syria to camps in Nineveh province is false and baseless assumptions,” said Deputy Minister Jassim al-Attiya in a statement 

The announcement responds to a social media post made the day before by Sherwan al-Duberdani, a member of the Iraqi parliament from Nineveh, and last week's report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) that documented preparations being made to transfer 32,000 people, most of them women and children, from Syria to Iraq. 

Read More: HRW warns of preparations at Iraq camp to isolate newcomers from Syria

According to HRW, authorities at the Iraqi camp have relocated up to 175 families who live in a sector known as “400,” to another part of the camp to make room for those from Syria. The 400 sector will allegedly be used to isolate the new group from the rest of the camp’s population.

“We were not notified from any official government agency about such an attempt," said the deputy minister. "Furthermore, any relocation of ISIS family members will require the knowledge of the official government security stakeholders to conduct security screenings and segregate them from the rest of the camp.”  

He continued, “As a ministry, we place Iraq’s security and safety above all, and any humanitarian situation, especially moving and transporting of IDPs, is done through us, making this allegation which we have no knowledge about groundless.”

Although the MoMD is charged with coordinating many logistics pertaining to displaced Iraqis, it primarily deals with internally displaced persons (IDPs) and its authority regarding the return of refugees from abroad is often dwarfed by Iraq's security forces and Foreign Ministry. 

The al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria currently holds roughly 30,000 Iraqis, a majority of them women and children. Some previously fled from the Islamic State in Iraq while others lived under the terror group’s rule in Syria until its military defeat in March 2019. 

Earlier in July, HRW reported that panic broke out among over 3,500 families living in another displacement camp in Nineveh when forces from multiple security agencies entered, commandeered a school, and began “screening” them for their relatives’ possible affiliation to the Islamic State, in contravention of international displacement standards and Iraqi law. 

Editing by John J. Catherine