Most of them returned from the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria to Morocco, among them a few founder members and senior officials.
Some of them are now actively promoting Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, which Morocco considers its Southern Provinces.
Their individual reasons to stop working for POLISARIO, as reported in the media, vary, but include allegations of human rights violations, monopolization and abuse of power, blackmailing and sequestering the refugee population in Tindouf, and squandering foreign aid.
The reports of the experiences of the former members of POLISARIO have generally been published in Moroccan newspapers supporting the government position on Western Sahara.
[38] US Congressman Donald M. Payne, from New Jersey, referred in 2005 to some former members of POLISARIO during a hearing before the subcommittee on Africa: "Also several people who were in a position of authority in the POLISARIO camps, when serious human rights abuses including torture were widespread, particularly during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, now occupy positions of authority in the Moroccan civil administration.