The Iraqi foreign ministry announced on Sunday that it will take back all Iraqi nationals who joined the Islamic State (ISIS) group who are currently in prisons controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The SDF are holding an estimated 2,000 foreign ISIS fighters, 8,000  local ISIS militants, and 70,000 women and children affiliated with the group in various detention centres and camps in northern Syria.

Ahmed al-Sahaf, the spokesman of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry confirmed the move in a statement released on Sunday.

“Iraq aims to receive all the Iraqi nationals who joined ISIS and  fought alongside this terrorist organization to face justice in Iraq  and under the Iraqi law,” al-Sahaf stated. “Iraq has no intention to  take the foreign ISIS members, and it is their home country’s  responsibilities to take back them and consider them,” he wrote.

Al-Sahaf also revealed that “Iraq will also take back the ISIS families who are Iraqi nationals as well.”

Most of the ISIS militant’s families are at al-Hol camp in the Hasakah province of northeast Syria.

The notorious al-Hol camp is home to about 70,000 people, including more than 11,000 family members of ISIS militants from overseas.

Header: A veiled woman looks back at Al Hol camp in Hasakeh governorate in northeastern Syria. Photo:AFP