Families Rally in Morocco for Repatriation of Relatives Held in Syria, Iraq Camps

The protesters, mostly women, chanted slogans and held banners to call on the Moroccan authorities to work for the return of their relatives, especially the women and minors detained in the camps in Syria and Iraq, according to EFE. "The displaced children in the camps must return home," reads one of the banners.

"These are our children, children of Morocco. They made a mistake, but we want them to be tried here and serve their sentences here so that their loved ones can see them," said Saadia Amrani, one of the protesters, from Fez, whose brother joined the Islamic State in Syria. "I don’t know if he’s dead or alive," she said, noting that she has not heard from him in four years.

According to the coordinator of the relatives of Moroccans detained in Syria and Iraq, more than 200 Moroccan jihadists (women and children) are detained in these two countries. For its part, the Moroccan government estimates that more than 1,100 jihadists and their family members are detained in the camps in Syria. Only eight of them were repatriated to Morocco two years ago.

"I acknowledge that our children made a mistake, and we ask His Majesty Mohammed VI to authorize the return of these children," demanded another protester whose son, a Daesh fighter in Syria, died, leaving behind three daughters, currently left to fend for themselves in a Kurdish camp. According to figures from the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ), 1,654 Moroccan citizens have been recruited into various jihadist groups to fight in the Syria-Iraq zone, including 1,060 who have joined the Daesh group.