Iraqi government suspends relocation of ISIS families from al-Hol camp in northern Syria to Al-Jad’a 1 Camp in southern Mosul in Iraq due to public protests.
Ali Omar, assistant of Nineveh governor for IDP affairs, told KirkukNow the relocation has been suspended till further notice and the buses prepared for their transportation have been returned to Baghdad.
Omar said that governor of Nineveh has addresses Baghdad officially not to hurry up in the relocation process for the wide protests by the people in the region.
"Residents in the area of the camp are members of Iraqi forces whom paid sacrifices and martyrs in the fight against Daesh so they might attack the camp and the condition go beyond control," he added.
The Iraqi government was planning to turn a camp used to be home of family members of the Islamic State IS group into home for family members of IS held at al-Hold camp in northern Syria, a step that sparked wide public protests.
Al-Jad’a 1, in Ninevhe province, used to be home for Iraqi families affiliated to IS members and was shut to push the residents to return home. Those who had social problems in their home towns have resorted to al-Jad’a 5 camp to escape tribal retaliation from the locals.
500 tents have been installed by the international organization for migration IOM in the camp and 100 families to be replaced from al-Hol in few days, about 700 people.
Head of Iraqi parliament’s committee for regions and provinces Shirwan Dwbrdani confirmed suspension of the relocation process.
Al-Hol camp in Syria home to tens of thousands of family members of IS fighters. Photo exclusively for KirkukNow.
500 tents have been installed by the international organization for migration IOM in the camp and 100 families to be replaced from al-Hol in few days, about 700 people.
Iraqi ministry of migration and the displaced authorities said their duty is to relocate them into the camp and they are not in charge of their security.
Al-Hol camp, east of al-Hasaka Kurdish province in northern Syria, is home for about 72,000 of people affiliated to IS fighters, almost 30,000 of them are Iraqi women and children. Others are Syrian and foreigners.
In 2019, the Iraqi government was planning to build a camp in Zummar, northwest of Mosul, for IS relatives yet it was stopped due to objection by local residents and officials.
The Iraqi government is trying since two years to relocate over 30,000 Iraqis, mainly women and children, from al-Hol camp to Iraq.
ISIS militants took over Mosul and one third of Iraq in 2014. Their crimes against the ethno-religious Ezidi minority escalated to genocide when they beheaded thousands, buried in tens of mass graves.
The extremist Islamist fighters, accusing the defenseless Ezidis of being devil worshippers, enslaved over 6400 women and children as sex slaves, half of them brought to unknown destiny and the rest were freed and reunited with their families living in poverty in the IDP camps in the Kurdish adjacent region.
Shingal and Shekhan districts in Mosul were home to over half a million Ezidis prior to IS atrocities. 3000,000 fled to Kurdistan and Shingal Mount and about 100,000 left Iraq forever.
