President Trump’s deep cuts to foreign aid have compromised efforts to repatriate tens of thousands of Islamic State members and their families living in camps in the Syrian desert, three inspectors general said on Wednesday in a report to Congress.
In the report, the inspectors general described how the cuts had created security lapses, slowed repatriation efforts and interrupted the distribution of humanitarian aid at the sprawling al-Hol camp and other outposts where former Islamic State residents have been held while their home governments try to reintegrate them into society.
The report was a quarterly update to Congress on the status of the yearslong campaign to defeat ISIS, known as Operation Inherent Resolve. The inspectors general were from the Defense and State departments, as well as from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which was the government’s main conduit for distributing foreign aid before the Trump administration largely dismantled it earlier this year.
The United States policy has been that repatriating residents of camps like al-Hol and its smaller neighbor, Roj, is the only way to keep ISIS from regaining strength in the Middle East. The presence of militants in the camps and the poor living conditions have made them fertile recruiting grounds. U.S. officials have also said repatriations are a necessary step toward relieving the United States of financial responsibility for the camps.
But major reductions in American aid have hobbled that effort, the report said. No Syrians left al-Hol to return to their homes in the first three months of the year because “key project activities identifying, preparing, and receiving Syrian returnees were halted,” according to the inspectors general report.
In addition, the report said pauses in security funding at al-Hol and Roj had led to periods of looting and protests, and a rise in attempts to smuggle people in and out of the camps. By the end of March, al-Hol housed about 36,000 people, most of them children, while Roj camp had another 2,400. They are not allowed to leave without permission.
During the first quarter, about 1,500 families were transported from al-Hol and Roj to a camp just over the border in Iraq called Jeddah 1, which functions as a rehabilitation center for Iraqi returnees and is heavily financed by the United States, the report said. The Trump administration made an exception to the general freeze of foreign aid to provide money to the camp for clean water, health services and waste management.
Still, by the end of the quarter, the Jeddah 1 center “faced significant challenges in sustaining comprehensive humanitarian support” because of the termination of U.S.-backed programs to help educate, employ, and integrate returnees into their home communities, the report said.
There were also shortfalls at Jeddah 1 in services for women and girls who had experienced violence, the inspectors general wrote. An uptick in begging was observed, caused by, among other things, the suspension of cash-for-work programs and delays in the delivery of food rations, the report said.
In addition, the termination of U.S. support for the World Health Organization has compromised efforts to ensure returnees sent to Jeddah 1 could get medicine, mental health services, and treatment for chronic conditions, the report said — all of which had previously been considered important to helping people who had been affiliated with or under the influence of ISIS to return to normal life.
The White House, the Pentagon and the State Department did not immediately respond to a requests for comment about the report.
All told, Syria lost eight U.S.A.I.D. stabilization awards in the first quarter of the year, bringing its U.S.-backed portfolio of foreign aid projects down to just three. Iraq saw 20 U.S.A.I.D. stabilization awards cut, leaving it with just two.
Karoun Demirjian is a breaking news reporter for The Times.
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