Ex-ISIS Indonesians in Rojava Longing to Return Home

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A former supporter of ISIS Aleeyah Mujahid, not her real name, welcomed the Indonesian government’s plan to repatriate its 600 citizens used to be the terrorist group fighters.

“This is the answer we have been waiting for since the past two years,” Aleeyah told Tempo on Wednesday, February 5. The 25-year-old woman has been a refugee in Rojava camp in Syria since the end of 2017 after the international terrorist group was completely defeated.

Since the beginning of her living in the camp, Aleeyah claimed to kept thinking about when she could return home. At that time, she thought she had to wait for a few months considering the Indonesian government had picked up one group. “But it turns out that I have to wait longer.”

After spending over two years in the camp, Aleeyah said she did no longer pray to be taken home, but rather to be moved to a better place. “If the answer [of my prayers] is Indonesia, alhamdulillah.”

According to her, there are 13 female adults and some 30 children from Indonesia at Rojava Camp. The need for water and electricity is sufficient but for food, each family must rely on themselves. Some work, do business or wait for aid from their long-distance family to meet their daily meals.

Aleeyah herself kept communicating with her family and relatives in Indonesia who also waited for her to back home, she said.

Previously, Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi on February 1 announced the repatriation plan of 600 ex-ISIS Indonesians. Yet he then clarified it, underlining that the idea was still being discussed.

FRISKI RIANA