REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Foreign Ministry facilitated repatriation of 93 thousand Indonesians who were facing problems in immigration while being abroad last year.
"For all of 2015, we had originally planned to help in repatriation of 50 thousand Indonesians, but it turns out that we were able to ensure the return of 93 thousand Indonesians," director of the protection of Indonesian citizens and legal entities at the Foreign Ministry, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, said here on Monday.
Other Indonesians were repatriated back to the country under a special scheme because they were involved in drug abuse, human trafficking and other criminal offenses, he said.
Iqbal said 210 of the Indonesians were deported by six countries on charges of being linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group.
Citing an example, he said 193 nationals who were mostly in small groups and families were deported from Turkey for allegedly attempting to cross the Syrian-Turkish border to join the ISIS.
After they were deported to Indonesia, they were handed over to the National Agency for Counter-Terrorism (BNPT) and the National Police's anti-terror squad Densus 88 to undergo de-radicalisation process, he said.
"Most of them have acknowledged that they wanted to cross over to Syria. Some of the 193 Indonesians have returned from Syria, and some of them have repented their action," he said.
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