JADAA CAMP, Iraq — Awatef Massud is longing
to reunite with her Iraqi family after years spent in Syria, but first she must
do time in a vetting camp to ensure she has no links to Islamist extremists.
The 35-year-old mother of five fled to neighboring
Syria in 2014 to escape
violence at home after the Daesh swept across swathes of Syria and Iraq.
اضافة اعلان
For four months now, since her return to Iraq, she
has been living in the
Jadaa camp, a compound near the northern city of Mosul
presented by the authorities as a “rehabilitation” center for those coming back
from Syria.
All the returnees were transferred from Al-Hol camp
in northeastern Syria, which houses displaced families but also relatives of
Daesh extremists, including foreign nationals.
Massud is adamant that her husband was killed by
Daesh. But she admits that her in-laws “were once part of the (Islamist
extremist) group”. “We left (Iraq) because of the terrorism. They (
Daesh) made
us leave our houses, they forced those who refused to join them to leave,” she
said.
Massud spent three years in Al-Hol with her five
children. Two of them are now with her in Jadaa, where they attend a public
school, while the other three stayed behind with her in-laws at Al-Hol. “I am
waiting for their return so that I can reunite with my family” in the western
Anbar region, she said.
More than 450 families live in Jadaa, a sprawling
camp lined with blue tarp tents, where visitors must present an official permit
to security guards before, they are allowed in. The camp is located south of
Mosul, once an Daesh bastion before the group was defeated in 2017.
‘Shame’
Some of the women questioned
by AFP acknowledged links to Daesh, through their husbands or a relative, but
others denied having had anything to do with the extremist group. As they await
processing, the families try to keep a semblance of a normal life with the help
of activities sponsored by
UN agencies and NGOs. Some women learn to sew while
teenage girls attend classes about puberty. Younger boys and girls mingle in a
small playground.
Camp administrator Khaled Abdel Karim told AFP that
only “a very limited” number of families at Jadaa had been influenced by Daesh
ideology. “This camp was not set up to detain or isolate the families, it is a
transit stop,” said Abdel Karim.
Experts, he said, help families overcome the “shame
linked to Daesh “, while others assist them with preparing the documents they
need to get through the vetting process and resume life outside the compound.
“Through our daily contacts, we see that our activities are not being
rejected,” the official told AFP. “When it comes to the mixing between men and
women, or the type of clothes they wear, there is nothing to signal extremist
thinking,” he added.
Until they are allowed to go back home, Jadaa
residents receive family visits four times a month. But before they can return
to their hometowns, tribal elders must hold council and give their approval.
“Families with perceived affiliation to (Daesh)...
often find their return blocked by security actors, experience community
rejection and stigmatization, and are at high risk of revenge attacks and
violence,” a World Bank report released in January said.
“At the same time, it is common for people living in
the area to fear that the return of families they believe supported or continue
to support (Daesh)... will destabilize their communities and create new risks
for security and social relations,” it added.
‘No future left’
Over the past several
months, more than 100 families have been able to leave Jadaa and reunite with
their families in
Iraq. Shaima Ali, 41, is among those still waiting for that
day. But her greatest fear is that residents of her hometown in the Qaim border
region with Syria will reject her.
“They say we’re a part of Daesh. It’s true my
husband was a member of the group. But that was him, not me,” she said. “If
only I could get out” of the camp, said Ali, who lived for five years in Syria.
“I’ve got no future left, perhaps, but I’ve got two daughters and I want a
future for them.”
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