“Welcome back to your motherland!” was heard recently in Kazakhstan, which has repatriated some 500 men, women and children who had been living in the so-called Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Kazakhstan isn’t alone. Countries across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Central and Southeast Asia, and beyond, are grappling with whether to accept the thousands of people who left home to join the Islamic State.

But, Kazakhstan is one of only a handful of countries that have accepted their citizens being held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria or by the Iraqi government. In fact, most have so far refused to repatriate their citizens (including children born in the conflict zone). The reasons include security concerns and pushback from nervous publics who don’t want them back in their communities.