T

he government has been kept in the dark over the fate of 16 Indonesians that went missing in Turkey, following a revelation by the Turkish government that the 16 Indonesian nationals currently detained for trying to enter Syria were arrested prior to the disappearance of another group of Indonesians.

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said on Friday that the 16 Indonesians detained after attempting to cross the Turkish border into Syria, allegedly to join the Islamic State (IS) movement, had not used a travel agency, unlike members of another group that was reported missing last week.

The 16 Indonesians, consisting of a man, four women and 11 children, are currently being held in the Turkish border city of Gaziantep, 97 kilometers north of Aleppo, Syria.

'€œThey did not use a travel agent for tourists,'€ Retno said at the Presidential Palace on Friday.

When asked whether the Indonesian government had found a motive for why the five adults brought along 11 children on their trip on a route frequently used by supporters of IS militants, Retno only said, '€œThey claimed to have been planning to enter Syria. However, we need to dig into it [this claim] deeper.'€

National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) chief Comr. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution said earlier that the recruitment of IS fighters from Indonesia had jumped significantly between June and October last year.

Saud estimated that 514 Indonesians had gone to Syria and Iraq to fight with the IS movement.

Responding to the trend, Retno said the government would '€œstep up surveillance [on people'€™s movements] entering and exiting the country'€, to prevent more people from joining the IS in Syria.

Retno said she planned to hold talks with the Turkish government to strengthen cooperation on matters related to the IS.

Meanwhile, National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti said that although the 16 detained Indonesians were confirmed not to be those who separated from their tour party, both the Foreign Ministry and the police would work to confirm their identities.

Badrodin also said that since most of the Indonesians were women with children, it was very likely that they were traveling to Syria to join their husbands, who might have already joined the IS.

'€œOnce we confirm their identities we may question their families. We think that most of them came from East and West Java,'€ Badrodin said.

If it was found that 16 detained Indonesians had planned on going to Syria to join the IS, Badrodin said that there was not much that the police could do as it was not illegal to travel to the war-torn country.

'€œNeither the Criminal Code [KUHP] nor the 2009 Terrorism Law prohibits traveling abroad to countries known for their militant groups. So, after the 16 Indonesians are deported to Indonesia, we will question them to see if they were involved in any other militant groups before we can name them suspects,'€ he said.