Fourteen Myanmarese Rohingya Muslim asylum seekers, en route to Australia, were in the custody of Kupang Immigration officials after being evacuated from a hotel in a Kupang suburb on Thursday night.
“There are 12 males, two females and two babies. They were on their way to Australia to seek asylum. They stayed in Medan, North Sumatra, before coming to Kupang,” Kupang Immigration office head Silvester Sililaba said on Friday.
He said the asylum seekers would temporarily be sheltered at the Kupang immigration detention center while the immigration officials coordinated with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR for further processing.
A source from UNHCR, who asked not to be identified, said a team would be sent to Kupang to register and process the asylum seekers based on the organization’s standard procedures.
“The team will be sent to Kupang within a week,” the source said. (iwa)
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