Early last month the Iraqi government decided that it will be accepting the return of 100 families who were formally part of the Islamic State (popularly known as ISIS or IS) into Iraqi society.
The families will be transferred from the Al-Hol refugee camp in Syria to the Al-Jada camp in Mosul, Iraq.
The 100 families consist mostly of children and teenagers who have no citizenship as they were not registered with any authorities except the Islamic State when they were born. This lack of documentation prevents them from attending normal schools or integrating into society. The vast majority of the adults in these families are the mothers of the children, the fathers having been killed, imprisoned, or are on the run from Iraqi and Kurdish authorities.
Many Iraqis have expressed outrage at the move and demanded that the government reverse the decision. A Yazidi member of Parliament (Yazidis are a religious minority in Iraq who suffered a genocide at the hands of the Islamic State) called on Iraq’s government to ensure that none of these families passed through Sinjar province, out of respect for the families of slain Yazidis. Others have called for the IS families to be exiled from Iraq forever.
Iraqi Ministry of Immigration and Displacement, Karim al-Nuri, pushed back saying “The return of IS families was well planned. It involves a rehabilitation program based on educational academic curriculum, especially for young people. The program aims to entrench in the returnees the values of tolerance, mercy, peaceful coexistence with others, and acceptance of differences in opinions and beliefs.”