Videos have surfaced of the arrest of individuals, who hail from the Syrian city of Raqqa and whom Iraqi authorities claim are members of ISIS. Their families have expressed concern that Iraq may hand them over to Damascus, asserting that they had only headed to Iraq from Syria to earn a living.
On Saturday, Iraq announced the arrest of dozens of Syrians from Raqqa, who were allegedly found in the possession of explosives.
Suad al-Hamadi, mother of one of the detainees, Abdullah Mohammed, 17, said that he had traveled to Iraq’s Sinjar at the beginning of the year.
Abdullah, along with his cousins and neighbors, have sought employment in Iraq to earn a living for his impoverished family, she said, adding that he has been working there for eight months and usually enters Syria through smuggling routes.
Yasser Mustafa al-Hussein, 34, who managed to escape detention, explained that some 55 Raqqa residents had decided to seek employment in Iraq due to the crippling economic crisis in their own country. They decided to travel to the neighboring country through smuggling routes and seek jobs in construction in Sinjar.
The borders between the neighbors have been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Yasser recounted that on Thursday, they boarded a bus from Raqqa and headed to Iraq. When they reached the border, the group spilt in to: One went off with smugglers and another headed towards the border, where they were ambushed by Iraqi forces.
Yasser was part of the smuggler group that was still on the Syrian side of the border when the ambush happened. He accused the smugglers of conspiring with the Iraqi border guards.
The group has since returned to Raqqa. Yasser’s younger brother Maher, 22, is among the detainees still in Iraq.
His anguished mother pleaded with Baghdad to release him and the others, stressing that they were only seeking to earn a living.
Khalil Hamadi, Abdullah’s father, expressed concern that the group would be turned over to Syrian security forces.
“This was the first time that he has ever left Raqqa. It was poverty that made me agree to his traveling to Iraq.”
