Morocco Identifies Origins of 1,659 Citizens Who Joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq

The deputies drew up this report with the ministers Nasser Bourita of Foreign Affairs, Abdelouafi Laftit of the Interior and Mustapha Ramid of Justice and Human Rights. The President of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Mohamed Abdennabaoui, and the President of the Mohammedia League of Ulema, Mohamed Abbadi, also took part in this work.

Before producing such a report, the working group took care to collect testimonies from families, fighters who were able to return to Morocco to serve their sentence. They would number 345, according to figures provided by the Ministry of the Interior. 245 of them are from Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma, Fès-Meknès and Casablanca-Settat.

Among those who remained in these conflict zones, many have died, but there are still 250 imprisoned fighters, including 232 in Syria, 12 in Iraq and 6 in Turkey, according to the report. In addition, there are 138 women detained in camps monitored by Kurdish forces and more than 400 minors, of whom only 153 are confirmed to be native to Morocco.

Faced with the complexity of the Moroccans of Daesh file, the deputy and secretary general of the PAM Abdellatif Ouahbi suggested the idea of creating a "National Agency" that will take into account the opinions of all the stakeholders involved. "We have proposed this agency to continue the work aimed at resolving this thorny issue," said Ouahbi. For him, these people, imbued with the ideology of the Islamic State (IS), know how to handle weapons, make explosives and prepare car bombs. It is therefore important that they feel involved in all the actions taken for their reintegration into society.

The report also looked at the repatriation of 8 Moroccans whose process was interrupted by the continued deterioration of the security situation in these areas. It recommends other forms of action that could allow the repatriation to continue.