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Blind spot on programs for IS returnees, deportees
Indonesia’s rehabilitation and disengagement program needs urgent improvement for the country to cope with the future threats of returnees or “deportees”. Around 775 former Indonesian Islamic State (IS) group sympathizers are scattered in several camps in Syria. Most of them are women and children who wish to return to Indonesia. However, none of Indonesia’s reliable programs have been proven effective.
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A screen capture of Mariam Abdullah, an Indonesian in Islamic State camp in Syria, in a video by Tirto.id. (JP/-)
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ndonesia’s rehabilitation and disengagement program needs urgent improvement for the country to cope with the future threats of returnees or “deportees”. Around 775 former Indonesian Islamic State (IS) group sympathizers are scattered in several camps in Syria. Most of them are women and children who wish to return to Indonesia. However, none of Indonesia’s reliable programs have been proven effective. In Indonesia, most people who return from Syria — either returnees who came back on their own or deported from countries such as Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore or Sri Lanka — will be spotted by authorities and then arrested. They will follow the same process.
First, they will be interrogated by the National Police’s antiterror force, Densus 88, to get a clear picture of their implications within local terrorist organizations such as Jamaah Ansharut Daulah and Jamaah Islamiyah. Second, if they are considered a threat to national security because of their links to such groups, they will be put under investigation, while, according to the evidence gathered, some charges might be pressed against them.
However, if they did not belong to those groups and are considered innocent, which is mostly the case for women who tend to follow their husbands, they will be hosted by rehabilitation centers under the Social Affairs Ministry. They will then need to pass a rehabilitation process managed by the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) or in collaboration with selected NGOs.
During our research and engagement with rehabilitation centers and Indonesian authorities, the rehabilitation program clearly did not separate or distinguish returnees from deportees.
The only efficient indicator to separate them is the pivotal examination of their relationship with a local terrorist group that could lead to terror acts during their return to society.
Arguments made by analyst Chaula Rininta Anindya in this newspaper in September are unwarranted; our research demonstrates the contrary.
First, there is no difference made between returnees and deportees by law enforcement and officials when dealing with returnees and deportees.
