Iraq pushes for closure of Syria's Al Hol displacement camp with New York meeting

Baghdad calls on nations to work towards closing border facility housing 50,000 people who fled fight against ISIS

Iraq has invited dozens of nations to a conference in New York in September aimed at dismantling Syria's Al Hol camp for people displaced by the fight against ISIS, which lies near the border between the two countries.

Baghdad views the camp as a threat to national and regional security. The facility houses more than 50,000 people who fled ISIS-controlled areas when the extremist group was dislodged from Syrian strongholds in 2019.

The conference is expected to be held on September 26 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, according to the official Iraqi News Agency.

Titled “Leveraging multilateralism in the repatriation, trial, rehabilitation and reintegration of persons into their community”, it will be attended by dozens of countries from the Middle East and the West.

For years, Iraqi authorities have pushed for the camp's closure on security grounds. Al Hol lies in the Al Hasakeh governorate of north-eastern Syria, less than 10km from the Iraqi border. Residents are either banned from leaving the tent city, where they live in squalid conditions, or have nowhere else to go.

The facility is run by Kurdish authorities who control north-east Syria. It hosts ordinary people displaced by the fight against ISIS as well as family members of ISIS fighters. The camp is the largest anywhere for people displaced by the extremist group's loss of territory. It remains one of the biggest unresolved humanitarian issues in the Middle East.

ISIS captured nearly a third of Iraq in 2014, before local forces backed by a US-led coalition defeated them in 2017. Iraq's security situation has improved dramatically since ISIS was dislodged, but Baghdad still views the Al Hol camp as a threat.

Iraqi authorities have pushed for years for the camp's closure on security grounds. AP

In the last few months, it has accelerated the repatriation of Iraqis held in the camp. Iraq’s National Security Adviser Qassem Al Araji has been pushing foreign governments to do the same, with a view to dismantling the camp.

In 2022, Iraq also began building a wall along its border with Syria, which stretches more than 600km, to prevent ISIS members from infiltrating its territory.

Karim Al Nouri, undersecretary for Iraq's Migration Ministry, last week said Baghdad had been co-ordinating with international groups such as the UN and the International Migration Organisation to ensure security during the return of Iraqi citizens from the camp.

“No security breaches have been reported among those returnees,” Mr Al Nouri said in a statement reported by the Iraqi News Agency.

The official said most of those repatriated from Al Hol had since gone through rehabilitation programmes at the Jadaa Rehabilitation Centre in the Iraqi city of Nineveh.

“More than 10,000 people completed awareness-raising and psychosocial rehabilitation programmes,” he said. The programmes are organised by age group, while women and children are offered psychological care as well as educational and vocational activities.