Posted by Asia Views | Oct 28, 2026 |
JakartaPost-Oct 28, 2026 Indonesia has pledged to continue cooperating with Singapore despite differences amid heightened tensions over forest and peatland fires that have created haze blanketing the country and its neighbors....
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PhnomPenh Post-Oct 27, 2026 Phnom Penh police have detained five foreign women over their suspected involvement in an illegal surrogacy scheme. According to authorities, A Chinese woman was suspected of managing the operation...
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Mizzima/AFP-Oct 27 Malaysia will seek clarification from Myanmar over reports that hundreds of migrants recently returned to the country are being held in military detention, Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said on...
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BangkokPost-Oct 27 DNA tests have identified 24 more Chinese-born children whose Thai birth certificates wrongfully list unrelated Thai men as their fathers. They include infants, university students and working adults. Police...
Read MorePosted by Asia Views | Oct 28, 2026 |
VNExpress-Oct 26 An array of robots capable of dancing, playing board games, brewing coffee, and reading human emotions is on display in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, drawing crowds of curious onlookers. The four-day Ho Chi Minh...
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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD
Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.
“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”
