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Irrawady-Oct 1 Disputes over terminology have been commonplace throughout the endless peace talks seeking to end armed conflicts and establish a federal union in Myanmar. The latest dispute is over the Burmese term “state basic...
Read MorePosted by Asia Views | Oct 2, 2020 |
PhilStar-Oct 2 With a caseload of over 314,000, the Philippines entered the list of 20 countries with the most number of coronavirus infections worldwide despite implementing one of the longest and strictest lockdowns. The...
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JakartaPost-Oct 1, 2020 The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has clarified that the purpose of a recent study conducted by the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), which found that Indonesia is vulnerable...
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JakartaPost-Sept 30 Two decades after the fall of the Soeharto regime, fears of communism remain entrenched in Indonesia, where the ideology has been banned since 1966. Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman...
Read MorePosted by Asia Views | Oct 1, 2020 |
MalayMail-Sept 30 The United States has banned imports of palm oil from Malaysian company FGV Holdings following an investigation into allegations it uses forced labor, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency said...
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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.”
