Posted by AsiaViews | Dec 10, 2019 |
TODAY-Dec 10 There is a little bit of Israel in parts of Singapore. The night vision technology used at the Night Safari, the names of Jewish families found in street names such as Zion Road and Frankel Avenue, as well as the...
Read MorePosted by AsiaViews | Dec 10, 2019 |
PhilStar-Dec 10 After more than two years of martial law in Mindanao, Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Tuesday announced that President Rodrigo Duterte has decided against extending it further. The martial law...
Read MorePosted by AsiaViews | Dec 10, 2019 |
TODAY-Dec 10 The re-emergence of the polio in Malaysia after 27 years is from the same virus that broke out and is spreading in the southern Philippines, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations...
Read MorePosted by AsiaViews | Dec 10, 2019 |
PhnomPenhPost-Dec 10 The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has set January 15 as the trial date for Kem Sokha, the former president of the Supreme Court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) who is under court-supervised bail...
Read MorePosted by AsiaViews | Dec 10, 2019 |
IRRAWADDY-Dec 10 A parliamentary confrontation between Myanmar’s military and the National League for Democracy (NLD) has come to a head over constitutional reform. On Monday, a military-appointed parliamentarian objected to NLD...
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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.”
