BARTELLA, Iraq — The mood was celebratory when Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi arrived in Mosul on July 9 to declare the city liberated from ISIS. Abadi's presence had marked a momentous victory in a gruesome battle that had raged for over nine months, claiming the lives of tens of thousands of civiliansand displacing nearly half a million more.But 13 miles away at a displaced persons camp in the town of Bartella, jubilance was supplanted by a cloud of uncertainty and despair. Designed specifically for people suspected to have links to ISIS fighters, Bartella was home to 170 families who were forcibly relocated by Iraqi security forces during the fight for Mosul. According to a directive issued by Mosul's district council, residents would "receive psychological and ideological rehabilitation," after which they would be reintegrated into society.
From its inception Bartella gave virtually no indication rehabilitation efforts were underway. Instead it appeared as an open-air prison camp for people whose only crime was their possible ties to ISIS, Human Right Watch's Belkis Wille told VICE News."The way this was framed was that this was going to be some kind of rehabilitation camp, with some kind of rehabilitation program, and I have not seen anything to suggest, anywhere in Iraq, that such a program actually exists," said Wille, senior Iraq researcher at HRW. "The camp was theoretically there to provide rehabilitation, but in reality it was basically just going to be this awful prison camp with minimal services. "Read more on VICE News.