Iraq is expected to receive its final group of ISIS prisoners on Thursday, with dozens of Europeans among them, officials told The National.
The transfers from Syria involve nationals of more than 27 countries including France, Germany, Turkey, China and Russia, according to the sources. Syrians make up more than half of those already sent to Iraq.
Once the final group arrives, the total number relocated is expected to be near 7,000. The information was provided by Iraqi security officials who were not authorised to speak about the operation.
“The last shipment is today and the number will be close to 7,000 but might not reach it,” an official said.
"Nationalities are various among Europeans, but a big number are Turkish, Chinese and Russian. From Europe there are Germans and French,” the official said. He said the prisoners will be placed in various prisons across the country.
The US has said it aims to transfer up to 7,000 ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq and that the operation was aimed at “ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities”. For years, they have been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in north-east Syria.
Syria’s government has extended its control into the previously Kurdish-held areas where the prisons and camps were located.
Another Iraqi official said that, as of Wednesday, 5,046 ISIS detainees had arrived in Iraq.
The majority – 3,245 – are Syrian, while Iraqis make up the second largest group with 271, said the official. There are 208 men from Tunisia, 160 from Turkey, 142 Moroccans and 100 Egyptians, he said. Other Arab, European and Asian countries are among the nationalities.
It is believed that thousands of European citizens travelled to join ISIS when the group erupted in popularity in 2014. Those remaining had been living in limbo while detained by the SDF. The Iraqi government has repeatedly called on foreign countries, especially EU states, to begin repatriating their citizens.
Officials say the move to relocate the prisoners to Iraq is driven by a deepening distrust of the Syrian military to handle the camps.
A security official told The National last month that the plan was for the detainees to be held in Nasiriyah Prison in Dhi Qar and Karkh Prison near Baghdad Airport, with smaller numbers to be detained in Sulaymaniyah, in the Kurdistan region.
The men will be tried in court, and Iraq has begun taking legal and judicial measures against those who have “committed crimes against the Iraqi people”, said the official.
There are thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of links to ISIS who are held in Iraqi prisons. Iraqi officials are concerned about renewed ISIS activity in the country. They are concerned the group will exploit security gaps in Syria after the escape of some detainees.
Renad Mansour, director of the Iraq Initiative at London's Chatham House, told The National that Iraqi officials are concerned about how to manage these detainees without a clear plan.
Iraqi politicians and security officials were hoping that they could "avoid this problem. There isn't a strategy or a plan of what to do, even, you know, where to put them, which prisons, how many in each," Mr Mansour said. "There are a lot of questions that they're scrambling to find answers to."
Iraqi courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life terms to people convicted of terrorism offences, including foreign fighters. Human rights groups have criticised some trials, saying they were rushed, and highlighted concerns about due process.
Razaw Salihy, an Iraq researcher at Amnesty International, told The National that the transfer of large numbers of detainees to Iraq raises serious concerns. "Iraqi prisons are already severely overcrowded, having reached up to 300 per cent capacity," she said, quoting Justice Ministry figures.
"Over the last decade systemic failures in Iraq’s justice system have been documented, including the widespread use of torture-tainted confessions and the application of the vaguely worded Anti-Terrorism Law to impose death sentences, life imprisonment or lengthy prison terms," she said.
In recent months, Iraqi forces have arrested or killed several ISIS members, including high-ranking field leaders, explosives experts and logistics co-ordinators. They have carried out operations outside Iraq, mainly in Syria.
In mid-2014, ISIS controlled large parts of northern and western Iraq along with territory in Syria, starting a war that lasted nearly four years.
