Morocco cracks down on fighters returning from IS
The Moroccan authorities are deploying all efforts to curb the phenomenon of former Islamic State fighters returning to their home country by arresting them.
For the last two years, Moroccan authorities have been cracking down on Islamic State (IS) fighters' returning from the battlefields in Syria and Iraq. While they have been accused of turning a blind eye to the departure of hundreds of volunteers to jihad in the early days of the conflict in 2012, authorities are now arresting returnees, fearing they would get involved in terrorist activities at home.
This zero tolerance policy on returnees has prevented many from coming back to Morocco, with some remaining in Turkey, according to sources close to Salafists Al-Monitor spoke with.
Khalil Idrissi, a lawyer who has defended several returnees, draws attention to their motivations to return home. Many had been lured with promises of money, he told Al-Monitor, while others dreamed of living under their own interpretation of Islam and came back to their country disappointed with their experience with IS.
According to Abdelhak Khiame, the head of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ), affiliated with the Interior Ministry, at least 1,600 Moroccans have left to join diverse groups and more recently, mainly IS. During the last two years, about 70 were arrested while coming back to Morocco.
