Considering The Repatriation Of Ex-Indonesian ISIS Children

JAKARTA - The government, through the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD, is considering the possibility of repatriating children under the age of 10 who are ISIS ex-Indonesian citizens. However, this effort must look at case by case, for example the child is an orphan or some other reason.

Deputy Chairman of Commission III Desmond J Mahesa supports the desire to repatriate these ex-Indonesian ISIS children. The reason is that they are victims who need to be protected by the state.

"Only foreigners in the framework of national interests for football, basketball, are supported. This Indonesian citizen, his father let go, but this child is still there. How could he come back, we can't accept it? Just instincts, our instincts are normal if it's your brother. how do you cry or not? " he said, at the DPR Building, Parliament Complex, Senayan, Jakarta, Thursday, February 13.

He added that not all children who went to Syria joined to become ISIS combatants. However, some were there because they were taken by their parents or husbands, said Desmond, who was a victim.

Therefore, Desmond asked the government to be pro-active in this matter by collecting data on the number of children who were there and the wives who wanted to go home but did not know how.

"If they do not have citizenship, where do they live? This is where I think the government's wisdom is to detect from the start, so that there will be a special policy against them," he said.

Furthermore, Desmond said, when the government repatriated ISIS children who were ex-Indonesian citizens, they had to be dealt with in a special way. Desmond suggested that handling this was not the task of the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT). Because, according to him, so far the BNPT program in tackling terrorists is not significant, including its deradicalisation.

"I think that being unsuitable for BNPT means the government has to convey where children need to be nurtured," he said.

Meanwhile, Terrorism Community of Ideological Islamic Analyst (CIIA) observer Harits Abu Ulya, who contacted VOI, said the government needed to further examine the government's plan to return ex-ISIS Indonesian citizens by combining various approaches, law, humanity and security.

Ulya assessed that the government could not rush into deciding the process of their repatriation. When the repatriation policy is aimed only at ISIS children who are ex-Indonesian citizens, the government must think about the impact. Ulya worries that the children will grow up with a grudge against the state.

"The children were taken home, the embok was thrown away. So big is the children's revenge," he said.

However, things are different when his father is unable to return to his country. The impact does not extend to an act of revenge. This is because, said Ulya, many ex-ISIS Indonesian citizens who are actually orphaned or do not have a father. Because their father died during the war in the Middle East.