Morocco is preparing a plan to bring home some of its citizens who once joined the Islamic State group and are now being held abroad, according to a senior security official who spoke to Reuters.
The plan would cover several groups connected to the conflict in Syria, including former fighters, women who lived in detention camps, and their children. Officials say the process is complicated because of legal and humanitarian issues.
“Morocco is currently developing an action plan on this matter,” a security official close to the discussions told Reuters, adding that authorities are studying how to deal with fighters, women who were living in camps run by Kurdish forces in Syria and the children who grew up there.
The discussion comes as thousands of suspected Islamic State members have been transferred out of Syria.
The United States began moving detainees earlier this year after the collapse of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which had been guarding prisons and camps holding Islamic State fighters and their families.
Last month, U.S. Central Command said the U.S. military had completed its mission in Syria after transferring about 5,700 adult male Islamic State detainees to Iraq. Iraqi officials have since called on countries around the world to take back their nationals.
Morocco faces a significant number of citizens connected to the conflict. According to data shared with Reuters, about 1,667 Moroccan fighters traveled to Syria and Iraq during the war.
Of those 1,667 fighters, 279 have already returned to Morocco, while 244 were previously held in SDF-run prisons in northeastern Syria.
Many relatives of those fighters are still in the region. A Moroccan security official said 269 women and 627 children remain in the conflict zone, while 134 women and 354 minors are in camps that were run by the SDF.
Since the Syrian conflict began, 125 Moroccan women have returned to Morocco, according to the same source.
Morocco has dealt with returning fighters before. In March 2019, the country repatriated eight Moroccan militants who had been detained by Kurdish forces in Syria.
The eight militants were tried in Moroccan courts and later sentenced to 13 to 18 years in prison on terrorism charges.
Moroccan law allows authorities to prosecute citizens who join extremist groups abroad, with penalties that can reach 10 years in prison.
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