Iraqi ministry pulls cover on returnees from Hawl Camp in 2022
ERBIL, KRI of Iraq (North Press) – The Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displaced counted on Wednesday the number of Iraqis who are returning and will return to the country from Syria’s Hawl Camp until the end of this year.
The spokesperson for the Iraqi ministry, Ali Abbas Jahangir said, in a press statement, that it was supposed to transfer 500 families in batches in cooperation with National Security Advisory and all security agencies.
The ministry started transferring the first batch of IDPs from Hawl camp, which was around 153 families. As for the second batch, it will include the transfer of about 150 families during the next few days, most of whom are elderly and sick, who will be accompanied by a medical team to al-Jada’a camp in Nineveh, according to Jahangir.
“Regarding the remaining 500 families scheduled to return, the transfer of all their members will be completed at the end of this year,” the spokesperson added.
He pointed out that “The timetable for transferring the displaced people from Hawl Camp to al-Jada’a camp depends on many things, including the situation of Syria and the preparations of the Iraqi side as well.
Jahangir indicated that the returning IDPs are residents of the “liberated” governorates, namely Anbar, Saladin and Nineveh, and they will be returned to their areas after every rehabilitation process that takes place inside al-Jada’a camp completes.
The reason behind rehabilitating and deep data inspecting of the returning Iraqis’ is that “they lived in the Hawl Camp, so there is a fear that they will be affected or brain washed by the extremist ideas of ISIS,” according to the spokesman.
Since mid-2021, about five trips were carried out, including Iraqi families, who were returned to al-Jada’a camp in northeastern Iraq.
A few days ago, the Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria (AANES) called on the Iraqi government to speed up the pace of repatriating its citizens from al-Hol camp in Hasakah countryside.
Sheikhmus Ahmad, head of the Office of Displaced Persons and Camps Affairs in (AANES), said that the current pace of returning Iraqi refugees from al-Hol camp is “slow and does not go with the total number of Iraqis in the camp.”
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.