Iraq Begins Returning 6,000 Foreign Prisoners Home
At a Glance
- Around 6,000 foreign prisoners from 61 countries are affected
- Most are Syrian nationals
- Baghdad seeks to ease prison overcrowding
Iraq has launched a diplomatic process to return thousands of foreign prisoners to their home countries as authorities seek to ease pressure on the country’s correctional facilities.
Key Statements and Focus Area
- Scale of the process: Around 6,000 foreign prisoners from 61 countries are being considered for repatriation.
- Main nationality: Most of the prisoners are Syrian nationals serving sentences in Iraq.
Ahmed Laibi, spokesperson for Iraq’s Ministry of Justice, said the government has launched a large-scale plan to return foreign prisoners currently held in Iraqi prisons. The ministry has opened communication channels with Arab and foreign governments to coordinate their transfer. The countries involved include Syria, Morocco, the United States, Canada, Russia, Tunisia, and Turkey.
Under the arrangements being pursued, transferred prisoners will continue serving their sentences in their respective home countries.
The transfers will be carried out through judicial agreements and in coordination with the relevant authorities in both Iraq and the receiving countries.
The process officially began after the Iraqi National Security Council issued a directive and approved the repatriation effort.
The Ministry of Justice said the initiative is also aimed at addressing overcrowding in Iraqi prisons. Laibi said the decision to dedicate Karkh Prison exclusively to foreign nationals had placed additional pressure on other correctional facilities.
Returning foreign prisoners would ease that pressure and allow authorities to redistribute Iraqi inmates among correctional facilities.
The Iraqi government is coordinating the process with the relevant countries to ensure that transfers comply with the laws of both sides.
The initiative is part of a broader diplomatic effort by the Ministry of Justice to address the foreign-prisoner population while managing conditions inside Iraq’s correctional system.
FYI
Iraq has previously faced challenges in dealing with foreign nationals convicted of crimes linked to the conflict with ISIS, particularly as many detainees come from countries that have been reluctant or slow to repatriate their citizens. The transfer of sentenced prisoners generally requires agreements between states and coordination over identity verification, judicial records, sentencing, and the legal status of the prisoners after transfer.
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