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Second group of Indonesian evacuees arrive home from Syria
A second group of Indonesian evacuees landed safely in Jakarta on Sunday after a three-day journey that saw them travel overland from Damascus to Beirut and then on an hours-long flight to Soekarno-Hatta, after rebel forces ousted the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
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Indonesians arrive at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, on Dec. 15, 2024, after they were evacuated from Syria following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad and his autocratic regime to pro-democracy rebels on Dec. 8 (Antara/Muhammad Iqbal)
T
he second group of citizens to be evacuated from Syria have arrived back in Indonesia this week, while the Foreign Ministry continues to collect the data of others who want to repatriate amid the uncertain conditions in the Middle Eastern country following the sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad’s leadership.
Thirty Indonesians, mostly women, were evacuated on Friday by land from the Syrian capital Damascus to the Lebanese capital of Beirut, before boarding a commercial flight bound for Jakarta. The group arrived on Sunday night at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, from where they continued their journey to return to their hometowns on Java and Sulawesi, as well as in Aceh and West Nusa Tenggara.
Last week, 35 Indonesians arrived at Soekarno-Hatta in the first batch of citizens to be repatriated from the war-torn country.
A total of 1,162 Indonesians resided in Syria, mostly migrant workers in Damascus, when rebel forces led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group seized the capital nine days ago.
Jakarta has since imposed the highest emergency alert status on the Mideast country that borders Lebanon and Israel to the west.
The government evacuates its citizens from conflict zones only on a consensual basis, and many Indonesians decline repatriation, typically because of they are married to a resident of the departure country.
“Some 83 other Indonesians have indicated their desire to be evacuated. We will continue gathering the data of those willing to return home,” Judha Nugraha, citizen protection director at the Foreign Ministry, told a press conference on Monday.
