Solidarity – Ouahbi’s pleadings bring back two Moroccan children stranded in Turkey

Relief! The intense pleadings carried out – for several months – by the president of the exploratory mission in charge of Moroccan women and children stranded in Syria and Iraq, Mr. Abdellatif Ouahbi, have finally paid off.

Indeed, the two Moroccan children, subjects to detention in Turkey, have arrived, this Thursday, to Mohammed V airport in Casablanca, thanks to the all-out interventions by PAM Secretary General, upon taking this sensitive humanitarian issue head-on.

Mr. Ouahbi had sent urgent correspondences to both the Minister of Interior and Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans living abroad, in reference to the human tragedy that is unfolding on Turkish soil.

“A Moroccan senior citizen had travelled to Turkey with the hope of bringing back his two grandsons, aged 3 and 5 respectively, for they have allegedly travelled with their father so that the latter may join the so-called Islamic State”, Ouahbi stated in his correspondence.

“However, the Turkish authorities prevented the man in question from leaving Istanbul airport despite having all the necessary documents and guarantees stipulating his right to exfiltrate his two grandsons”, he added.

Fortunately, this case found its way to the exploratory mission’s roundtable a few days prior to its alleged resolution by the House of Representatives, following several recommendations by the competent mission in this regard.

Mr. Ouahbi has also evoked the case in question before the Minister of Solidarity, Social Development, Equality and Family, during the last oral session held within the House of Representatives, stressing that such a tragedy has brought shame and disgrace to the government.

It is noteworthy that the two children’s exfiltration process has been carried out under the supervision of the Moroccan authorities in coordination with their Turkish counterparts, as part of Morocco’s repatriation policy aimed at clearing Moroccan subjects who were proven to have no contribution to the ongoing fight in Syria or Iraq.

In conclusion, Ouahbi stated that the two children’s return shall mark the beginning of a long process relating to cases of a similar nature, in view of the circumstances surrounding each one of these cases.