Iraq Sends Delegation to Damascus: What’s Next for Displaced People and Their Camps?

Iraqi authorities are seeking to close the file on displacement, both inside and outside the country. While dispatching a high-level delegation to Damascus in an effort to bring an end to the al-Hol camp, they are also drawing up plans to resolve the issue of internal displacement and address the plight of those still living in camps since the Islamic State’s sweep across Iraq in 2014.

Although the government approved a national plan in early 2021 to return displaced people to their home areas, setting a six-month deadline that was meant to close all camps by the end of December 2022, that target was never met. 

Hundreds of thousands of families remain trapped in displacement, living through a crisis that has stretched on for years.

Iraqi Concern

The Iraqi government dispatched intelligence chief Hamid al-Shatri to Damascus on August 28, 2025, to meet Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa in order to arrange the evacuation of Iraqi families from the al-Hol camp in Syria, through the organization of two transfers each month, according to local media reports.

On September 2, 2025, the Iraqi newspaper al-aalem al-Jadeed reported that Baghdad is pressing ahead with efforts to repatriate families from al-Hol “amid warnings that the camp could be used as a card to destabilize security, in a bid to avert any potential terrorist threats along its borders.”

The paper said the move followed Hamid al-Shatri’s visit to Damascus, during which he received assurances from the Syrian president that procedures would be facilitated. 

It noted that the Iraqi official conveyed Baghdad’s urgent desire to evacuate Iraqi families from al-Hol “as quickly as possible.”

The newspaper added that “the government believes the continuation of these transfers across the border could allow certain terrorist elements to enter the country,” pointing out that Iraq wants to close the chapter on displacement in both internal and external camps, focusing instead on rehabilitation and reintegration of the displaced into society and their return to either their original areas or to places where their lives are not at risk.

According to the report, the Iraqi plan foresees receiving two groups of displaced people every month, though it stressed that “political and security circles in Iraq fear that jihadists in al-Hol could be used as a card to once again undermine the security situation.”

The al-Hol camp was first established by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees after the Gulf War in 1991, on the outskirts of the Syrian town of al-Hol. 

It was reopened following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 to absorb waves of displaced people, and in April 2016 was taken over by the Syrian Democratic Forces, who turned it into a holding site for families of Islamic State fighters.

The camp is estimated to host around 43,000 people, with Iraqis making up more than half its population. Syrians form the second-largest group, followed by foreign nationals from at least 45 countries, including France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Russia and Turkiye, according to camp administration figures released in early 2024.

On his first day in office in January 2024, U.S. president Donald Trump signed an executive order freezing all American foreign aid, which included funding for al-Hol.

Demographic Shift

On the domestic front, a proposal from Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and Displacement has sparked widespread controversy, as it suggested creating alternative areas for displaced people living in camps inside the country. 

Critics saw the plan as an attempt to engineer demographic changes and prevent displaced families from ever returning to their original homes.

The proposal has been described as paving the way for altering the demographic makeup of certain areas after the government’s failure to resolve the displacement crisis. 

Opponents argue it demonstrates that the plight of Iraq’s internally displaced will remain unresolved in the near future, despite repeated government pledges to return them to their areas of origin.

In a statement on August 21, the ministry said that “the Supreme Committee for the Relief and Support of Displaced Persons discussed counting families living in camps as integrated and stable, in preparation for closing the file on displacement by the end of 2025.”

It added that “this approach is in line with the requirements of the public interest, aimed at ending the displacement file in Iraq and helping these families achieve stability, return and social reintegration.”

However, deputy migration minister Karim al-Nouri said the idea was only a proposal under study and that the ministry had not issued any official decision on the matter. 

“The proposal involves resettling them in their current locations to facilitate their integration into society as a first step that would later pave the way for their return to their original area,” he added.

On August 31, Alssaa quoted al-Nouri as saying that “the Ministry of Migration is not responsible for preventing the return of displaced people to areas such as Jurf al-Sakhar and Sinjar, among others, as its role is limited to overseeing their repatriation and providing humanitarian relief and assistance during the displacement period.”

“Many areas are closed to their residents under the pretext of security vetting, and this is not the ministry’s responsibility but falls under the jurisdiction of the security authorities,” al-Nouri said.

By contrast, Yazidi MP Vian Dakhil described the ministry’s approach as “a serious violation of the Iraqi constitution and a direct infringement on citizens’ fundamental rights.”

“The Supreme Committee, under the supervision of migration minister Evan Faeq, has taken unlawful decisions, including counting families in the camps as integrated and stable, at a time when hundreds of thousands still live in camps deprived of the most necessities of life,” Dakhil added.

“This decision represents an attempt to impose a new demographic reality in displacement areas, particularly in Yazidi and Christian regions, and stands in contradiction to the constitution, international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, which guarantee the right to voluntary, safe and dignified return free from any pressure.”

Soft Underbelly

On the timing of Baghdad’s request to Damascus to close the al-Hol camp, Iraqi political researcher Ali al-Masari said that “Iraqi authorities fear the children living there could become potential terrorists, especially given that those running Syria today are regarded with suspicion by the Shia ruling class.”

“Transferring the detainees’ file from Syria to the control of militias and the supervision of the Iraqi government makes them feel more reassured, out of fear that these people could later be used as a card to pressure Iraq,” al-Masari told Al-Estiklal.

“Iraq’s ruling forces fear a repeat of the catastrophe of the Islamic State’s sweep, and that the border with Syria, under a regime in Damascus not aligned with Iran, remains a vulnerable flank dreaded by Iraq’s Shia parties and militias.”

He ruled out the prospect that “the al-Hol file will be resolved any time soon, since it does not concern Syria and Iraq alone, but also international actors, whether European states or even the United States, which will have the decisive word on its fate.”

On the issue of internal displacement, al-Masari argued that “Iraqi authorities are reluctant to demand that militias hand back the areas they emptied of their residents and turned into weapons factories, particularly Jurf al-Sakhar, yet they brazenly boast of discussing the resettlement of these populations in their displacement areas.”

Iraqi activist Qasim Khider said that “the Ministry of Migration’s announcement of definitively closing the displacement file, while keeping hundreds of thousands of Iraqi displaced people in their areas of displacement, including more than 200,000 Yazidis, amounts to the failure of both Baghdad and Erbil to address the displacement crisis as a matter of Iraqi citizenship.”

In a post on X on August 21, he noted that “the decision to close the file on hundreds of thousands of displaced people, by confining them to their camps, simply means stripping them of their rights as citizens in their own country and putting them up for sale wholesale and retail in the markets of politics.”

Dozens of displaced Iraqis staged protests inside the Bzeibiz camp in Anbar province and in camps in Duhok province in the Kurdistan region, voicing their outright rejection of closing the displacement file in this manner, saying it would alter the demographics of their areas and distance them from their homes officially and under state sponsorship.

Bzeibiz in Anbar hosts more than 2,000 displaced families, the majority from the city of Jurf al-Sakhar in Babil province, which has been held by Iran-backed militias since 2014, as well as from the al-Awisat area between the two provinces. 

These families face a humanitarian tragedy, receiving no assistance from government authorities.

According to figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Iraq is still grappling with a protracted crisis, with more than one million people displaced inside the country. 

Around 109,000 of them live in 21 camps in the Kurdistan region, while the rest reside in towns and villages outside the camps, often in difficult conditions.