TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Human rights advocacy group Setara Institute opined that the repatriation of the children of former ISIS fighters is an urgent move the Indonesian government should take.

“Especially children under the age of nine,” said the group’s research director Halili in a written statement, Friday, February 7.

Halili said that the longer the children stay in the camp, the more it will cause negative impacts on them. “They will further be exposed to the extremism of ISIS and the adverse effects of the extreme situation there.”

In line with the repatriation of the children, the identification of their big family and their role is also considered vital, as well as medical and psychological rehabilitation experts.

Meanwhile, the government must intensify programs on the prevention and handling of religious extremism so that a similar complexity case would not recur, Halili stressed.

“Setara Institute will keep reminding the government that intolerance is the first stair to radicalism and extremism-terrorism,” he remarked.

He went on to say that the Indonesian government, like it or not, would eventually take the responsibility to the former militants or supporters of ISIS, dubbed as foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) by the government, because of the rising global humanitarian issue.

“The reason that some of them have disposed of their passport and declared of not being Indonesian citizens and joined the foreign military will no longer be relevant in due time,” Halili said.

As of date, the government has not yet decided whether to repatriate hundreds of Indonesians who were former ISIS militants. Coordinating Minister for Politics, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud Md said the state was still mulling over the good and bad impacts from the repatriation.

FIKRI ARIGI