02/05/2020 Indonesia (International Christian Concern) – According to Indonesia’s Minister for Religious Affairs Fachrul Razi, the Indonesian government is crafting a plan to repatriate about 600 Indonesian nationals who joined the Islamic State (IS) group to fight in Syria.

“The government has not yet decided the repatriation plan,’” said Razi. “It is still being reviewed thoroughly by a variety of institutions under the coordination of Coordinating Ministry for Politics, Legal, and Security Affairs,” he added. Yet he admits that there are many things to consider, both positive and negative impacts.

On Saturday, Razi had announced that Indonesia’s National Counter Terrorism Agency planned to repatriate some 600 IS-supporters on humanitarian grounds, who have been trapped in Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria along with their families.

AsiaNews reports that it is unclear how many of them actually hold Indonesian citizenship. The London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR) reported in July 2018 that some 700 to 800 Indonesian were part of the Islamic State, including 113 women and about a hundred children. Of these, 183-300 had already returned.

Moderate Islamic organizations in the country will be called upon to provide full assistance to the Ministry’s de-radicalization program, although it will take time for the returnees to be de-radicalized. No further details are provided at this time.

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