150 Iraqi families to return home this week from Syria's notorious Al-Hol camp

Over a hundred Iraqi families staying at the notorious Al-Hol refugee camp in Syria are expected to be transferred to their home country this week, a member of the Iraqi parliament has confirmed.

The 150 families will leave Al-Hol camp in eastern Syria and move to the Al-Jadaa camp in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, where more than 600 Iraqis have been relocated so far.

After the families' arrival to Al-Jadaa, families will undergo various psychological and educational rehabilitation courses for a few months.

A UN programme will help children catch up with their education, while women can take part in workshops, a source told The New Arab’s sister site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

Al-Hol houses tens of thousands of people, some of them related to Islamic State group fighters. It is mainly inhabited by women and children from Iraq and Syria where the terror group once controlled large swathes of territory, although there are also foreign relatives of IS militants.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) guard and run the overcrowded and dangerous camp, where children are particularly at risk. There have also been multiple cases of violence in the foreign annex of the camp.

"The situation in al-Hol camp…represents a state of anxiety for Iraq, and there is a fear of creating a new generation of IS [extremists], especially with the many problems in managing the camp by the Syrian Democratic Forces," Iraqi sources quoted National Security Adviser Qassem Al-Araji as saying.