According to BNPT head Police Commissioner General Eddy Hartono, the 14 Indonesians were repatriated from Turkey at the end of 2024 after Turkish authorities found them near the border, attempting to travel to Syria.
"This is one form of cooperation between the Indonesian government and Turkey to repatriate Indonesian citizens who are trying to go to Syria," Hartono said during a book launch in Jakarta on Thursday.
Upon their return from Turkey, the Indonesian citizens were placed in a special correctional facility in Bogor, West Java, for various assessments, particularly for women and children, he added.
The assessments include health checks, education evaluations, and mental health screenings, he continued.
Once the assessments and profiling are completed, they will undergo coaching and rehabilitation with the involvement of local governments, Hartono said.
"We will coordinate with the local government of their respective regions. If they are from Central Java, I will ask the Central Java government to conduct coaching for them," he explained.
He noted that these coaching efforts are part of the deradicalization process.
Although deradicalization usually targets suspects, defendants, convicts, prisoners, former prisoners, or individuals and groups exposed to radical and terrorist ideologies, the BNPT is also focusing on Indonesian nationals associated with FTFs.
Additionally, the BNPT operates a job training center to equip former terror convicts with skills that will help them reintegrate into society, gain acceptance, and earn a livelihood upon their release.
"These steps are part of the social reintegration efforts we provide," Hartono stated.
As part of its broader deradicalization initiative, the agency also collaborated with the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs in 2024 to shut down approximately 3,000 social media accounts linked to radicalism.
The majority of these accounts were found on platforms such as Facebook, Telegram, and others.
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Translator: Agatha Olivia, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Anton Santoso
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