Police have received 424 cases of babies dumped nationwide from 2018 till September this year, which averages to nine a month. Bukit Aman Sexual, Women and Child Investigations Division principal assistant director Assistant Commissioner Siti Kamsiah Hassan told Utusan Malaysiathat over half, or 283 of the 424 of the reported cases involved babies who were found dead. She also said that of the 424 reported cases, 285 involved babies who were dumped right after being born, while the remaining 139 cases were foetuses. “Based on police investigations, most of the cases of baby dumping happened in residential areas, with 166 reported cases, followed by the mosque, on the sides of buildings and in brushes. What’s even sadder, sometimes we find them in toilets, drains, garbage disposals, even in the graveyard,” she was quoted as saying. Siti Kamsiah said that 50 per cent of the cases have no known suspects, while in 30 per cent of the cases, the suspects were between the ages of 18 and 25. Read more at: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/10/27/in-malaysia-an-average-of-nine-babies-reported-abandoned-in-a-month-half-fo/2016292
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.”
