Almost six months after the territorial collapse of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS), about 12,000 foreign individuals – mostly women and children – associated with the terrorist group remain stranded in Kurdish-controlled detention and displacement camps across north-eastern Syria. Despite increasing awareness, many countries have refused to take back their national, allowing only limited repatriation for children. In contrast, countries like Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia, have taken a more proactive approach to address the issue, by initiating a series of mass transfer campaigns. This research seeks to answer the following questions: Why have the Central Asian countries adopted this particular policy approach? What are the conditions for mass repatriations to be effective? This research is meant to be published in RSIS platforms.