Iraq seeks to send 6,000 foreign prisoners home

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Justice Ministry has begun approaching 61 countries about repatriating nearly 6,000 of their nationals held in Iraqi prisons to serve out their sentences at home, ministry spokesperson Ahmed Laibi said. Prisoners under death sentence are excluded.

The ministry is opening channels with Arab and foreign governments to conclude agreements allowing transfers “according to the principle of reciprocity or based on joint agreements and memoranda of understanding,” Laibi told the state newspaper Al-Sabah, and has obtained a National Security Council decision on the matter. Syrians are the largest group, followed by nationals of Morocco, the United States, Canada, Russia, Tunisia and Turkey.

The numbers reflect the transfer of Islamic State suspects from northeastern Syria. Iraq began receiving them in January after instability raised concerns about facilities guarded by the Syrian Democratic Forces, and by mid-February the ministry said 5,703 detainees of 61 nationalities had arrived, among them 3,543 Syrians and 467 Iraqis. They were held at Karkh Central Prison and classified using information from the international coalition. By April more than 5,700 were there under Counter-Terrorism Service and Corrections Department guard, with about 1,000 questioned and no court rulings issued.

Laibi said the foreign prisoner population has worsened overcrowding, particularly after Iraqi prisoners were redistributed to free Karkh for the Syrian transfers. Officials said in February that the detainees were not meant to stay permanently and that Iraq would seek arrangements for eligible prisoners to serve sentences at home, with an existing agreement with Turkey a possible model.