Dozens of Indonesian citizens (WNI) who were found among thousands of foreign ISIS fighters at the Al-Hol Refugee Camp, East Syria, some said they wanted to return to Indonesia, Wednesday (27/3/2019).
According to news reported by BBC Indonesia, the majority of Indonesian citizens are children and women. Before arriving in Al-Hol they were in Baghuz, the last ISIS enclave that had been captured by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
One of the Indonesian citizens, Maryam, who claims to be from Bandung, West Java, wants to return to her hometown with her four children.
“I am with four children and a family from Baghuz, we want to return to our home country, to Indonesia,” said Maryam as quoted by BBC Indonesia, Wednesday (27/3/2019).
According to the testimony of Afshin, a freelance writer who interviewed Maryam, the condition of the refugee camp in Al-Hol is very bad.
“The conditions in the camp are very, very bad and concerning. Not enough to accommodate thousands of people, no help. There are those who share food but it is not enough for all,” said Afshin.
Dozens of Indonesian citizens met by Afshin had just left Baghuz. However, Afshin said there were many other refugees who had lived in the camps for years.
Previously, US-backed SDF forces were reported to have detained more than 5,000 Syrian and foreign fighters since last January. They were placed in various prisons, while women and children were placed in refugee camps.’
According to a Kurdish official quoted by the AFP news agency, more than 9,000 ISIS-supporting families from abroad are being housed in the Al-Hol camp. So that the camp with a capacity of about 20,000 people currently has to accommodate more than 70,000 refugees.
The Kurdish official, Abdul Karim Omar, said he was very disappointed with the international community because it felt as if it had been left to deal with ISIS fighters.
Abdul said that his party was unable to accommodate the militias who had been detained.
Abdul admitted that he was very disappointed with the steps taken by a number of countries to revoke the citizenship of their citizens who had/had joined ISIS.
“The Kurds have suffered greatly during their time under ISIS and also against the militant group. Leaving ISIS members in an unstable region under a government that is incapable of dealing with it will create problems,” Abdul said.
BBC Indonesia has tried to contact the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Indonesian Embassy in Damascus to ask for steps to deal with Indonesian citizens who join ISIS, but until this news was published, BBC Indonesia had not received an answer.
