Iraq: ‘No crime in being married to someone that’s committed a crime’ – NRC spokesperson

“There’s no crime in being married to someone that’s committed a crime, and there’s certainly no crime in being a child of a criminal,” the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Iraq media coordinator Melany Markham said in a skype interview, speaking from northern Iraq, Tuesday.
She was referring to a camp in Iraq, which was set up to accommodate the wives and children of suspected IS fighters following the liberation of the IS stronghold Tal Afar.
“I think it needs to be clarified that these people only have suspected links to ISIS fighters. The only thing that is for sure is that they have fled from former ISIS held areas, but their links to ISIS don’t go beyond that,” Markham said, adding “as far as we’re concerned, everyone is a civilian, unless they have been investigated and prosecuted for a crime.”
The camp can accommodate up to 1,400 people, but the location and the identities of its inhabitants have not been disclosed for security reasons. “There’s around 14 to 17 nationalities represented here altogether,” Markham said.
Aid groups, including the UN, are working to establish the identities of everyone in the camp, since many no longer have their documents. “There’s no international processes or law that dictates this kind of situation and that means that the Iraqi authorities have to negotiate with a number of different governments. Would hope that the mechanism would lead to a swift conclusion of the situation and not have people hanging in limbo for months if not years,” Markham said.