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BangkokPost-July 10 Thailand, the world’s top producer of coconut milk, said it will enable retailers and consumers to trace coconuts back to their source to show whether monkeys have been used for harvesting. The $400-million...
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VietnamExpress-July 9 A total 30 Vietnamese were discovered in a fishing vessel bound for Taiwan on Monday, its Coast Guard Administration (CGA) revealed Wednesday. Three women and 27 men from Vietnam, aged 25-30, were found on...
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JakartaPost-July 9, 2020 Indonesia’s high rate of COVID-19 infection has not stopped people throughout the archipelago from refusing to be tested, largely because of employment concerns and a fear of ostracism, despite the...
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JakartaGlobe-July 9 Maria Pauline Lumowa, a fugitive in a major embezzlement case involving more than $200 million in bank loans, was extradited by the Serbian government to Indonesia on Wednesday, 17 years after she was named...
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MalayMail-July 9 Three former members of Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) spoke about the sexual harassment they allegedly faced from one of the think tank’s directors, following a call by women’s rights groups for an independent...
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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.”
