The international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) said the population of the al-Hawl camp in Syrian Kurdistan has decreased to about 41,000 people, with more than half being Iraqis.

A coalition statement on Sunday said 41,740 people remained in the al-Hawl camp, including 18,160 Iraqis, 16,503 Syrians and 6,411 foreigners.

More than 1,700 camp residents have been relocated in less than three months, according to the coalition established in 2014 to fight IS terrorists.

 

On April 18, the coalition reported more than 42,000 people were in the al-Hawl camp, including 19,526 Iraqis, 16,778 Syrians and 6,486 third-country nationals.

“Another column of relatives of IS militants will soon be transferred fr om the al-Hawl camp to the Jeddah camp in Nineveh,” Mohammed Nouri, a member of the Iraqi parliament from the province of Nineveh, stated to the Iraqi media.

According to media reports, the Iraqi federal government intends to repatriate all Iraqis from the camp by the end of this year.

Upon their return from the camp, relatives of IS fighters are housed in Camp Jeddah in southern Mosul, wh ere they are being prepared to reintegrate into society.

The camps in Syrian Kurdistan, controlled by the US-backed local Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, were once home to 73,000 people. The bulk of them were family members of IS militants.