Five families brought back to the country yesterday from among Maldivians who left to fight in Syria can be successfully rehabilitated, Homeland Security Minister Ali Ihusan has said.
Responding to a question from a journalist at a press conference held on Tuesday after the repatriation of 21 Maldivians from Syria, Minister Ihusan said that a Maldivian family was previously brought back from Syria, housed at the integration center in Himmafushi and released after treatment.
The family has posed no danger to society more than a year since their release, Ihusan said, noting that they will be monitored closely for five years.
"This work is done very widely in different countries in the world. People have been successfully rehabilitated and reintegrated in many countries," Minister Ihusan said.
The family was living a normal life, Ihusan said, expressing complete certainty in the ability to treat all the Maldivians who returned yesterday.
As all of them had been involved in the war to varying degrees and harbored such ideologies, Ihusan said assessments will be conducted to determine the best form of treatment.
"Different people were exposed to different kinds of things and different trauma. How much impact has been made psychologically - we will look at all these aspects and learn through our assessments which program [is needed]. Different people will also respond differently in recovery when the program is started," Ihusan said.
When the children are ready for reintegration to society, the government has also decided to teach them at the Himmafushi school. Teachers at the island school have been fully trained to teach the children and awareness raising will be carried out for other parents and children, the minister said.
Several Maldivians traveled to join Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda when the organizations controlled parts of Syria. Some of them took their families and many people died but Maldivians still remain in refugee camps in Syria.
Efforts to bring back Maldivians in Syrian camps started under the previous government. A family brought back in early 2022 was rehabilitated and released. The families of Maldivians stranded in Syria have also been working to bring them back over the past years.
