Posted by Asia Views | Dec 22, 2020 |
JakartaPost-Dec 21, 2020 Dozens of university and high school graduates from across the country formed the Alumni for Indonesia organization on Monday to address concerns about the country’s potential tilt toward social and...
Read MorePosted by Asia Views | Dec 22, 2020 |
MalayMail-Dec 21 Returnees from the United Kingdom will be allowed entry into Malaysia even after a new and highly infectious Covid-19 strain emerged there. Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the...
Read MorePosted by Asia Views | Dec 22, 2020 |
Irrawaddy-Dec 21 Some 600 Myanmar migrants working in Thailand’s Samut Sakhon province are among more than 800 confirmed COVID-19 cases linked to the Talay Thai wholesale shrimp market, the site of the country’s worst outbreak...
Read MorePosted by Asia Views | Dec 22, 2020 |
PhilStar-Dec 22 The Philippine government has requested approximately $325 million from the rapid response component of the Asian Development Bank’s vaccine access facility, an ADB official said yesterday. ADB country director...
Read MorePosted by Asia Views | Dec 22, 2020 |
Today-Dec 21 Singapore received its first shipment of Covid-19 vaccine on Monday (Dec 21) evening on board a Singapore Airlines (SIA) cargo flight from Belgium, where it was manufactured. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived at...
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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.”
