Malaysian #ISIS members in #NE_Syria are unwilling to return to their home country for fear of having to undergo detention and rehabilitation in Malaysia. @UN @cmoc_sdf @coalition @CJTFOIR #Malaysia https://t.co/e9iao4OgR9
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) February 24, 2022
The Malaysian government has maintained an open-door policy to repatriate its own nationals with links to the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(ISIS) from northeast Syria, but this process involves several challenges.
The Malaysian government estimates that 122 Malaysians traveled to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS while others estimate the real figure to be 200-250, according to The Diplomat, an Asian magazine.
After the defeat of ISIS in Syria’s eastern town of Baghouz, Malaysian ISIS members and families were held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and were sent to camps or to detention centers in northeast Syria.
Many Malaysian ISIS fighters were killed in the battlefields and only a small number were repatriated. However,
nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits...
56 Malaysians, including 19 men, 12 women, 17 boys and eight girls are still in Syria.
Recent reports have suggested that 10 Malaysian women, 12 boys, and five girls are present at the Hawl Camp while nine Malaysian men are still being held in a prison in Hasakah city, where thousands of ISIS male members are detained, according to The Diplomat.
One Malaysian man is detained at a prison in Idlib in northwestern Syria, The Diplomat added.
On January 20, some ISIS sleeper cells attacked the prison in Syria’s Hasakah to break their fellow members out from the prison and the nine Malaysian ISIS members were believed to be in the prison at the time of the attack. However,
nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits...
there has been no news about the Malaysian ISIS members following the prison incident.
Since 2019, the Malaysian government has attempted to bring back some 40 Malaysians from Syria but only 16 have now been successfully repatriated due to several challenges in the repatriation process.
The first challenge is that some Malaysian citizens are unwilling to return to their home country for fear of having to undergo detention and rehabilitation in Malaysia.
Secondly, the Malaysian government faces a number of diplomatic challenges. Since the Hawl Camp is controlled by the SDF, and the Malaysian government does not recognize the SDF diplomatically. Repatriation is not a straightforward, one-way process, rather it relies on the efforts and cooperation of numerous parties, the political status of the SDF has posed a diplomatic hurdle in a few instances.