29,000 Iraqis still in Syria’s al-Hol Camp: Ministry 

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – There are still nearly 30,000 Iraqis living in northeast Syria’s notorious al-Hol camp, a senior Iraqi official said on Tuesday. 

Out of the camp’s estimated 58,000 residents, at least 29,000 are Iraqis, Deputy Minister Karim Al-Nouri of the Ministry of Migration and Displaced told state media on Tuesday. 

The official said that Iraqi nationals returning from the camp are first rehabilitated at Jad’a Camp in Nineveh province before being reintegrated into their communities. 

Three hundred families have recently returned to Iraq. 

Aside from Iraqi and Syrian nationals, the camp also hosts various foreign nationals. Their children are at severe risk of being exposed to violent and extremist beliefs. 

An estimated 10,000 foreign nationals are still residing in al-Hol. 

The repatriation of the displaced people to their countries of origin is an issue of major concern for the local Kurdish administration and international humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations. 

On Monday, Tajikistan repatriated 140 women and children from al-Hol

In an op-ed published in the Washington Post on Thursday, the former commander of US Central Command, Joseph Votel, said the sprawling camp is incubating the “next generation [of] ISIS”. 

After ISIS’s territorial defeat in 2019, the families of the terror group were transferred to the camp, which was initially established as a temporary facility.