Iraq is preparing to deport hundreds of foreign women and children held in its prisons, with Turkish nationals forming the largest group among the detainees, officials and diplomats said.
The plan would exclude women sentenced to death but apply to those convicted of common crimes as well as those affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) extremist group, an Iraqi security official told Agence France-Presse. The largest number of detainees comes from Turkey, Azerbaijan and Russia, he said.
The Iraqi authorities created a committee “charged with establishing a plan for the repatriation of foreign and Arab detainees, as well as their children,” Iraqi justice ministry spokesman Ahmed Laibi said on Saturday, according to state media.
“We have hundreds of women and children in our penal facilities,” he said, adding that the committee was headed by the justice minister.
Deporting the women and children would also reduce prison overcrowding, Laibi said.
Prisons in Iraq are currently at 150 percent capacity, the ministry said in July.
Around 625 foreigners and 60 of their children are held in prisons in Iraq, a judicial source said, most of them linked to ISIL.
There are also thousands of Iraqis jailed for links to the group, often following hasty trials according to NGOs.
The jihadists were routed in 2017 in Iraq, having overrun much of the north and west of the country three years earlier.
The justice ministry brought together several foreign diplomats on Thursday to discuss the matter.
“I’m not sure this can happen very quickly,” one European diplomat told AFP, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Repatriations “will only be possible in the case of bilateral agreements between two countries,” they said.
An Arab diplomat said that “such procedures cannot be completed quickly.”
“To accelerate the process with countries that don’t have [bilateral] agreements, Iraqi authorities have proposed using memorandums of understanding,” the diplomat said.
He added that this would allow the executive branch to act without waiting for parliamentary ratification.
© Agence France-Presse