Burmese Rohingya
Muslims, rescued at sea in western Indonesia, sit in a detention centre in
Lhokseumawe on Wednesday (February 27th). The 121 asylum seekers were found
adrift by fishermen around 25km off the northernmost tip of Sumatra. [Reza
Juanda/AFP]
By Devianti Faridz
August 8, 2013
INDONESIA: While
many Muslims celebrate Idul Fitri at home with their families, for some it is a
struggle to figure out where home is.
38-year-old
Muhammad Hanif, whose parents fled Myanmar in the 1980s, is one of thousands of
asylum seekers who ended up in Indonesia.
After living 30
years in Malaysia and undergoing many interviews at the UN refugee office
there, he lost patience with the process and packed up his belongings and his
family.
They travelled by
fishing boat and illegally landed in North Sumatra.
Mr Hanif said his
family then met a group of men, who deceived them into paying US$13,000 to take
them to Australia.
He said: "The
smugglers brought us to a building nearby the airport and locked us inside. We
were not allowed to go out so we were stripped of our freedom and we all became
weak inside."
A janitor helped
them escape and brought them to the UN refugee office in Jakarta.
They then camped
out at a mosque in central Jakarta for days before someone brought them to the
Legal Aid Foundation.
The foundation not
only let the family stay at their office, it is also helping to coordinate with
the Immigrations department, the UNHCR office and the Australian embassy, in
the hopes of resettling the family in Australia.
But the foundation
has faced legal hurdles in helping the family's asylum plea.
Julius Ibrani,
legal aid coordinator at Indonesia Legal Aid Foundation, said: "There
should be a legal mechanism that puts forward humanitarian values. Furthermore,
Indonesia faces consequences as an active member of the United Nations. This is
what we are striving and has become a hurdle as it doesn't exist."
Since 2008, the
UNHCR has handled cases of around 1,400 Rohingya. In the first six months this
year alone, over 500 Rohingya have registered with the UNHCR in Jakarta.
Overall a third of them have transited in Malaysia, while the rest came
directly from Myanmar.
At the Fifth Bali
Process Conference this year, Indonesia proposed and approved establishing a
working group to address human trafficking and people smuggling problems.
But experts said
much needs to be done to address the root cause of asylum seekers fleeing
persecution.
Manuel Jordao,
representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said:
"Is there or not enough political will to give this additional step
forward that will transform the Bali Process, not just as many call it another
forum that is just a talk show, but as a forum that produces concrete regional
cooperation agreements?"
Mr Jordao admitted
it is hard to resettle the Rohingya as the 21 resettlement countries in the
world show very little interest in accepting them.
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