REFUGEES STUCK IN "TRANSIT COUNTRIES" by Fardah

      Jakarta, June 30, 2009 (ANTARA) - Escaping from war-torn Afghanistan, more and more Afghan refugees, including women and children, in fact have ended up in Indonesian jails instead of in the land of their dreams, Australia. 

       Indonesia has been 'kind enough' to become a 'very strong fortress' protecting neighboring Australia from refugees, especially those from Afghanistan. 

        Stuck in Indonesia, most of them have lived in the country for four to six years, cannot work, go to school, or settle down. According to information from Crikey website, Australia provides $18 million a year directly to the Indonesian government to improve 'migration management and border security in Indonesia'.         

        Crikey quoted an Australia's Department of Immigration and Citizenship spokesperson as saying, 'For many years Australia has supported Indonesia's efforts to prevent people smuggling, by funding the International Organization of Migration (IOM) to care for intercepted people and by funding the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to consider potential protection claims."       

          Meanwhile, the Indonesian government has stated that the country has no plan to declare the country a destination for refugees from other countries as regulated by a convention of the United Nations (UN). "Even without becoming a destination country, Indonesia has already handled many cases of this (refugee) problem," Teuku Faizasyah, a spokesman of the foreign affairs ministry, said in Jakarta recently. 

        Indonesia is surrounded by some problematic countries, so that Indonesia becomes a destination of refugees, according to him. The Indonesian government has given optimal assistance to the refugees so far, he said. 

        The refugee handling usually took a long time because the process of moving them to the third country was complicated, he said. "Refugees are impatient to go to the third country as soon as possible, so it could cause irritation with neighboring countries," he said. When the refugees are classified, they must soon be moved.

         "They should not take their own way for their placement," he said. According to data from the UNHCR office in Jakarta recently, a total of 1,928 migrants have entered Indonesia since early this year. "The migrants consisted of 441 refugees and 1,487 asylum seekers," UNHCR Assistant Protection National Officer Nurul Qoiriah said at a seminar commemorating World Refugee Day which is observed on June 20.          

          The asylum seekers mostly came from Afghanistan (1,200), Myanmar (300), Iraq (282) and the rest from Sri Lanka and Somalia, she said. "They were sheltered in various refugee camps in Indonesia. But most of them were sheltered in Jakarta (908), Aceh (265), Bogor (254), Mataram (174) and other areas (less than 100)," she said. 

         She said the migrants with refugee status were being handled by UNHCR while those with asylum seeker status were being interviewed. 

           In addition to using `the traditional exit point' in East Nusa Tenggara to reach Australia by boats, the refugees now diversify their `embarkation areas' in other provinces such as Bengkulu (Sumatra), Lampung (Sumatra), Riau (Sumatra), West Nusa Tenggara, and Maluku (Sulawesi). In Bengkulu alone, there are now 46 illegal Afghan immigrants arrested by Bengkulu Police in Pondok Kelapa waters, Central Bengkulu. 

         The asylum illegal immigrants told the local authorities they were in Indonesia only in transit to Christmas Island, Australia, which they would tray to reach by boat. Officers of IOM and the UNHCR as well as the Indonesian Immigration Office are now handling the planned repatriation of eight out of the 46 illegal immigrants. 

         "Their return to Afghanistan is just a matter of time. the immigration office will facilitate their return which is fully at their own wish. There are eight people who want to return to their country," Indra Sakti of the Bengkulu Immigration office said in Bengkulu recently. Bengkulu Governor Agusrin M Najamudin said recently the Bengkulu authorities should not treat the 46 Afghan immigrants as prisoners as they were only victims of war. 

         They were human beings, too, and therefore for humanity's sake, they would be accommodated in a more comfortable place like a Hajj Building, he said. The 46 Afghan asylum seekers had earlier been on hunger strike for several days demanding the Australian government to grant them asylum. 

        "We are on a hunger strike until the Australian government is willing to meet our request," Ahmad Ali, an Afghan immigrant, said in Bengkulu recently. "Life in our country is very dangerous as our basic need, namely security, has yet to be met, therefore we are on hunger strike until the Australian government listens to us," Ali said. Yunus, another Afghan asylum seeker, said they had agreed to pay US$2,000 per person to Indonesian fishermen willing to take them to Australia by boat. 

        If they stayed in their country, their life would be threatened and they all would probably not be able to survive. If they fled Afghanistan, their chance of surviving was 50 percent, the governor of Bengkulu, said.    

         The 50 percent chance depended on whether their boats would reach the destination country (Australia) or sink in the sea on their way to Australia, he said. Many of refugees have lost their lives in their efforts to reach Australia. 

        A boat carrying 36 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan capsized in the waters in Riau, Sumatra on May 28, 2009, leaving 19 dead, 16 survivors, and 1 still missing. The surviving 16 Afghan people were currently being accommodated at the local immigration office, while the 19 dead bodies were buried in Bagan Siapiapi. 

         The Afghan immigrants were now under the supervision of the IOM and UNHCR. Some 200 refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Mynamar and Iran, observed World Refugee Day in a hotel in Cisarua, Bogor, West Java on June 23, 2009. 

         They organized art performance, film screening, poem reading, a bazaar and music performance on the occasion, in order to forget their sufferings on the Refugee Day. For the 42 million uprooted people around the world, a shortage or lack of the essentials of life - clean water, food, sanitation, shelter, health care and protection from violence and abuse - means that every day can be a struggle just to survive. 

         UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres said in his message "on this World Refugee Day, let us remember that the millions of people cared for by the UN refugee agency and our partners are among the most vulnerable on Earth. 

        "Each and every one of them has a very human story to tell. Refugees are not faceless statistics - they are real people just like you and me who through no fault of their own have lost everything," he said. The theme for this year's World Refugee Day on June 20 is "Real People, Real Needs." And yet they might be forgotten. ***3*** (F001/A/HAJM/17:55/a014)