Indonesia Races to Evacuate Citizens Amid Syrian Upheaval
A second wave of Indonesian citizens have returned home this week, escaping teh escalating crisis in Syria following the dramatic collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The Indonesian government is working tirelessly to bring home its citizens amidst the uncertainty gripping the nation.
thirty Indonesians, primarily women, completed a harrowing journey on Friday, traveling overland from Damascus to Beirut before catching a commercial flight to Jakarta. They arrived Sunday evening at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, beginning their individual journeys back to their hometowns across Indonesia.
This group follows the arrival of 35 Indonesians last week, marking the beginning of a large-scale repatriation effort. Before the recent upheaval, approximately 1,162 Indonesians, mostly working in Damascus, called syria home. The swift takeover of Damascus by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group nine days prior triggered Indonesia’s highest emergency alert for the region.
Indonesia’s repatriation efforts are entirely voluntary. Many Indonesian citizens choose to remain, often due to family ties within Syria. “Some 83 other Indonesians have indicated their desire to be evacuated. We will continue gathering the data of those willing to return home,” stated Judha Nugraha, the citizen protection director at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, during a Monday press conference.
The Indonesian government continues to urge its remaining citizens to exercise extreme caution, advising them to limit unnecessary travel, avoid large gatherings, and maintain constant contact with the Indonesian embassy in Damascus. “The ministry and the embassy continue to monitor the situation in Syria, which so far remains dynamic, including after Israel’s incursion into Syria,” the ministry announced in a Sunday statement.
The Israeli military launched an operation in southern Syria on the same day the Assad government fell,citing the creation of a “sterile defense zone,” according to a December 11th Reuters report. This further complicates the already precarious situation, prompting other nations to also evacuate their citizens.
india, such as, reportedly evacuated 77 citizens last week, including 44 pilgrims stranded in Set Zaynab, a city just south of Damascus. The fall of Damascus on December 8th marked the end of the Assad family’s rule, which spanned over five decades. Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his father in 2000, has reportedly sought asylum in Moscow.
The sudden collapse of the Assad regime follows over a decade of brutal civil war, ignited by the government’s violent response to anti-government protests in 2011. Even Russia, a long-time ally of Assad, has reportedly evacuated some diplomatic staff, along with Belarusian and North Korean diplomats, via a special air force flight on Sunday, according to AFP.
