Number of Indonesian Children Joining ISIS Rising: Minister
25 March 2017 11:56 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa said the number of Indonesian children who allegedly joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syiria (ISIS) is at an incrasingly alarming rate.
According to the minister, the Social Affairs Ministry has received 129 Indonesian children who have been deported from a number of countries. Those children allegedly tried to join the group, the Minister said.
"The number of Indonesian children (who join ISIS) is significant indeed," said Khofifah in the Thousand Islands on Friday (24/3).
On Wednesday (22/3), she added, at least 12 Indonesians were deported from Turkey and were sent by National Police’s Densus 88 counterterrorism squad to the Social Affairs Ministry.
Out of those 12 people, eight of them are children.
Khofifah added that those 129 children who have been deported since January 2017 are now being sheltered at Bambu Apus rehabilitation center managed by the Ministry.
EGI ADYATAMA
