Four Indonesians — one of them as young as 15 years old — have been deported through Batam after they were caught using Singapore as a transit point to fly over to Syria to join the Islamic State.
Jakarta Globe reports that Singaporean authorities worked together with the Indonesian National Police after they grew suspicious of the four’s intentions last Sunday. Barelang District Police and heavily-armed Gegana officers picked up the group at the Batam Center International Port before putting them into a special vehicle.
The four came from Bekasi, West Java and Purbalingga in Central Java, and had left for Singapore from Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport a few days ago. They then travelled to Johor in Malaysia before returning back to Singapore. The authorities were initially tipped off when they said that they were heading to Syria during questioning.
So far, an estimated 500 Indonesians have taken up arms with the militant group to fight in Syria and Iraq, with about a 100 of them thought to have returned home.
As for the four deportees, they’ll be free to go if cleared of terror connections.
