Airstrikes Resume in Marawi as Army Tries to Force Remaining Separatists From City. Credit - Instagram/Kenneth Kyle via Storyful

Airstrikes Resume in Marawi as Army Tries to Force Remaining Separatists From City. Credit - Instagram/Kenneth Kyle via Storyful

INDONESIA is number two on the worldwide list of foreign Islamic State jihadists arrested in Turkey in a worrying sign for our nearest neighbour and for Australian law enforcement.

Out of the 4957 foreign fighters arrested in Turkey, Russia tops the list with 804.

Indonesia is number two with 435 arrests.

Australia is not on the list and only one arrest is known publicly — Neil Prakash was captured late last year attempting to cross the border into Turkey and is currently before a Turkish court.

One analyst says the number of Indonesians on the list is “mind-boggling” and highly concerning for Indonesia’s security.

Another points out that many of the Indonesians arrested so far in Turkey include whole families and large numbers of women and children.

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Olivier Guitta, the CEO of GlobalStrat, a geopolitical risk and security consultancy firm, says the statistics, from Turkey’s Ministry of Interior, does not mention what period the arrests cover but he believes it is probably 2015 to the present.

In a series of Tweets about the figures Mr Guitta says it is “extremely concerning for the security of Indonesia that so many of its citizens have joined or tried to join Islamic State in Syria”.

“The number of Indonesians belonging to Islamic State arrested in Turkey is really mind boggling and a huge surprise that they are number 2,” he says.

Tajikistan, Iraq and France sit at numbers three, four and five.

Terrorism analyst Sidney Jones, from the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, says the large number of Indonesians arrested in Turkey may be attributed to the fact that many women and children are being arrested after going with their families to Syria.

“In the first three batches of deportees sent back (to Indonesia) in 2017, of a total of 137 individuals, 79.2 per cent were women and children under the age of 15,” Ms Jones said last night.

“When you say ‘jihadists’ your image of is one of male fighters but many Indonesians left with families with the misguided aim of bringing their children up in a ‘pure’ Islamic state.

“The family units means that people have to travel in larger units that increase the possibility of getting caught,” Ms Jones said.

Australian law enforcement officials have long been concerned about the number of Indonesians fighting with IS in Syria and returning to Indonesia and melding back into society and freedom.

Australian counter-terrorism chiefs and Government Ministers will attend a conference in Indonesia in two weeks to discuss the issue of IS returnees and the threat they pose with their Indonesian counterparts.

It comes as Indonesia’s Parliament debates new laws, making it an offence for Indonesians to join overseas terror groups, an offence which has never before existed.

Under the laws, which it is hoped will pass in the next few months, those who join foreign terror groups would be jailed for a maximum 15 years.

At present, Indonesians deported from Syria are held in shelters run by the Social Affairs Ministry.

Last month authorities announced that 152 Indonesians, deported from Turkey between January and June this year, had been sent home to their villages after undergoing deradicalisation programs.

But there are concerns that some of these battle-hardened Jihadis are planning attacks in Indonesia.

Two suspects in a June stabbing murder of a police officer in North Sumatra had been to Syria in 2013, raising eyebrows about just how effective the deradicalisation programs are in stopping those intent on causing mayhem and death.

Ms Jones said monitoring of returnees was not always effective, but it was a matter of police resources.

“They try to separate the deportees that they think are dangerous for more intensive questioning at Brimob HQ and will try to hold them on suspicion of some violation if they think they are at risk of committing violence. But if there’s no legal basis to hold them, they have to let them go,” Ms Jones said.

She said Indonesian police had been increasingly effective in preventing people going to Syria and had become more efficient in getting watch-lists to Immigration and alerting officials to more vigilance concerning those flying to Turkey.