Syria’s Autonomous Administration urges speed up repatriating Iraqis from Hawl Camp
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – On Sunday, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) called on the Iraqi government to speed up the pace of repatriating its nationals from Hawl Camp east of Hasakah, northeastern Syria.
“The process of repatriating Iraqi refugees from Syria’s Hawl Camp is too slow and not commensurate with the total number of Iraqis in the camp,” said Sheikhmous Ahmad, head of the IDPs and Refugees’ Affairs Office of the AANES.
Following the ISIS attack on Mosul and the Sinjar District in Iraq in 2014 and 2015, many residents fled to the Syria’s AANES held areas.
Hawl Camp is a house for 55.829 individuals, including 28.725 Iraqis, 18.850 Syrians and 8.254 of foreign nationalities, according to the latest statistics obtained by North Press.
“The number of Iraqi nationals in Hawl camp is about 29.000 people, i.e. half of the camp’s residents,” Ahmad told North Press.
Iraqi refugees in Hawl camp are calling on their country’s government to speed the process of repatriating them to Iraq in light of the continuing killings in the camp and the poor security conditions there.
Ahmad noted that the Iraqi government’s Committee for Migration and Displacement has opened an office in the camp to register the names of Iraqi citizens who wish to return to Iraq.
The Iraqi Committee records the names of the people who wish to return and focuses currently on sick people and the elderly, Ahmad added.
The AANES official considered that the number of people repatriated by the Iraqi Committee is “very few” compared to the number of Iraqis in the camp.
Ahmad said that it is the committee’s duty to work on increasing the number of trips through which it deports people from Hawl camp towards Iraqi territory.
An Iraqi delegation, arrived in northeast Syria at the beginning of this month, is registering the names of people and families wishing to leave Hawl Camp and go back to their country.
Under the Global Coalition pressure and in coordination with the Autonomous Administration, the Iraqi governments restarted return trips for Iraqis during the year 2021.
Since mid-2021, about five trips were carried out, including Iraqi families, who were returned to al-Jada’a camp in northeastern Iraq.