Posted by AsiaViews | Feb 1, 2018 |
A crude petrol bomb was tossed on Thursday morning into the residential compound of Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but she was not at home and damage was minor, officials said. Suu Kyi’s main residence and the target of the...
Read MorePosted by AsiaViews | Feb 1, 2018 |
A Cambodian court on Thursday, February 1, rejected a plea for bail by detained opposition leader Kem Sokha, he is the head of the now dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). Kem Sokha was arrested on September 3 amid a...
Read MorePosted by AsiaViews | Feb 1, 2018 |
Revisions to Indonesia’s criminal code being considered by Parliament would allow prison sentences of up to five years for sex between unmarried people. Those changes would also criminalize gay sex, the bugbear of Indonesia’s...
Read MorePosted by AsiaViews | Feb 1, 2018 |
China became Indonesia’s second-biggest source of foreign direct investment in 2017, and officials in Jakarta are saying they expect the Chinese inflows will only continue to swell. China overtook Japan on the Southeast...
Read MorePosted by AsiaViews | Feb 1, 2018 |
Investvine- 1 Feb: Thai people are spending an average of nine hours and 38 minutes daily on the Internet, with around one third of this time used for consuming social media. This makes the country ranking first in Internet time...
Read More
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.”
