Mosul council deports IS fighters families, cites need for rehabilitation
Representational photo.
In a statement, the council said it will no longer allow receiving migrant Islamic State fighters families arriving from other provinces. The existing families are to be deported and sheltered in camps where they will be “psychologically and ideologically rehabilitated and integrated with society once they prove responsive to that process.”
The council’s plan also involves a ban on internal migration in Mosul, and to ensure that migrant families are returned to the very same residences they occupied before June 2014 except those who had lost their dwelling. Official IDs will be reviewed to verify that migrants are truelly original Mosul residents, according to the statement.
Iraqi security forces are currently cornering IS militants in the Old City in western Mosul. Forces recaptured eastern Mosul in January, and have been screening the population there in search for IS-linked individuals and arresting suspects. Security forces have regularly caught IS-affiliated militants sneaking in the middle of displaced civilians.
The war against Islamic State militants in Mosul has displaced at least 800.000 civilians since their launch in October 2016.