Other Countries Keep Deporting ISIS Sympathizers Back to Southeast Asia

When Indonesia's anti-terrorism police broke up a plot to set off homemade chemical weapons at the presidential palace complex and a prominent police headquarters, the five people accused of planning the terrorist attack were already well-known to police as ISIS sympathizers.

But two of them, a husband and wife, had already raised red flags abroad. Both were caught in Hong Kong promoting radicalism among the city's sizable population of Indonesian migrant workers and maids. Neither were jailed. Instead, Hong Kong authorities deported both of them back to Indonesia, where they eventually linked up with some radical Islamists who were in touch with Bahrun Naim's Khalifah Nusantara division within ISIS.

Their deportation, and alleged involvement in a terrorist plot, highlighted a growing issue for countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. Both nations were already concerned over the potential havoc caused by their own citizens returning from ISIS-held territories in Syria and Iraq as the Islamic State continues to lose ground.

But now Indonesian authorities also need to watch out for radicalized citizens deported from places like Hong Kong and Singapore. And authorities in Malaysia complain that their lax visa rules have made them a "dumping ground" for ISIS supporters caught and deported from countries like Turkey.

"Instead of being deported to their last port of disembarkation, they were given the 'option' to be deported to Malaysia," an anonymous Malaysian intelligence official told the Straits Times. "We have become a dumping ground."

Here in Indonesia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has identified at least 430 Indonesian nationals who have been deported from Turkey after being caught trying to sneak over the border to into ISIS-held territory in Syria. Another 43 Indonesian domestic workers have been radicalized in Hong Kong alone, according to a report by the Institute of Policy for Analysis of Conflict (IPAC). Twenty of these migrant workers are currently under the watch of the Hong Kong police.

In Malaysia, the alleged arrival of 16 individuals deported from Turkey triggered a massive—and indiscriminate—manhunt that failed to find a single ISIS supporter but rounded up hundreds of migrant workers from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh instead. Meanwhile, authorities believe there are as many as 30 people who arrived in Malaysia after being caught trying to sneak into Syria.

All were identified as problems abroad and then deported away for someone else to deal with. Local governments need to set up systems to counsel, and watch, those who arrive in Indonesia or Malaysia after running into terrorism-related troubles abroad, said Anis Hidayah, the deputy director of the NGO Migrant Care.

"For the host country that didn't want to take a risk, deportation becomes the best solution," Anis told VICE. "And the country of origin has to accept back their citizens who get deported. Then it's become our problem. The Indonesian government should have established some sort of peer group to support those who were deported because of radicalism so they can be assisted and monitored."

Today, when someone returns to Indonesia after being deported for spreading radical beliefs, they can easily fall through the gaps and vanish before authorities realize who they are. There needs to be increased coordination between intelligence, counter-terrorism, and government branches dedicated to individually dealing with this kind of thing, Anis said.

Another migrant worker activist told VICE that the nation's consulates and embassies should engage with the Indonesian diaspora in their countries through deradicalization programs and associations that provide migrant workers with a sense of belonging and support.

A lot of Indonesian migrant workers living abroad turn to religious organizations and prayer groups to reconnect with their religion and community. It's there that they first get exposed to radical preachers and ISIS ideology—often using their paychecks to fund ISIS-linked activities, according to the IPAC report.

That's why activists like Wahyu Susilo think the Indonesian government needs to head-off these issues at the source by setting up support networks in popular receiving countries like Singapore and Hong Kong. "If we don't anticipate these things then radicalism will keep rolling like a snowball," Wahyu told VICE.

But in Indonesia, authorities struggle to monitor even known terrorists recently released from prison. The National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) caught a lot of flack when news broke that it lost track of at least 400 former terrorists. And there is little in place to prevent convicted terrorists from linking up with their former militant organizations upon their release.

There needs to be a total overhaul of the county's anti-terrorism programs if the government wants to prevent the spread of radicalism and the growth of terrorist networks in the first place, said Taufik Andrie, a terrorism expert from Prasasti Perdamaian.

"We need observe each root of the problem closely," Taufik told VICE. "We need to do it subject by subject. The underlying problem lies in the concept or design of the deradicalization programs. So far, the existing programs don't come with individual assessments."