The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Seeking refuge: Muhammad Hafid, a Rohingya refugee, comforts his infant son while taking shelter at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) headquarters in Central Jakarta earlier last week. Some Rohingya refugees who were bound for a third country have claimed to have been abused by authorities. JP/Jerry Adiguna Jakarta Post July 15, 2013 In the corner of the room, Muhammad Hanif had just started to eat with his sister, Hasinah, when Jakarta Legal Aid (LBH) legal consultant came to check on them and their fellow Rohingya refugees on the third floor of the LBH office. Hanif wore a dull white shirt with a plaid sarong covering his thin, dark-skinned body. The eyes of the 38-year-old man from Myanmar seem tired and lost.  He went to sit on the floor, but the consultant asked him to have a seat on the leather couch. “I don’t know what to do anymore. I just want people to help me and my family to get citizenship,” he said. The long-standing discrimination ...

Jakarta Post: April, 16, 2013 TANGERANG: The police of Mauk district, Tangerang regency, detained on Monday 16 migrants from Myanmar who were hiding on an offshore floating fish trap. Chief Insp. Suhendar said that local fishermen filed a police report after discovering the migrants on the fish trap earlier in the day. “We are collecting data on the migrants. We will hand them over to the immigration office for processing,” Suhendar said. Khalid Husain, 27, one of the migrants, said they had traveled from Myanmar on a vessel heading for Australia via Malaysia and Indonesia. “We are so scared of the ongoing political conflict that has claimed many lives,” he said, adding that each of them had paid the equivalent of Rp 3 million (US$309) to an agent who promised to help them enter Australia to seek asylum. Indonesia has sheltered many migrants from the Rohingya ethnic group in Myanmar. The Rohingya, who are not recognized as a minority group by the Myanmar...

Facing a long stay: Detainees at an immigration detention centre in Belawan, North Sumatra. Photo: AP Jakarta Post: April, 9, 2013 A number of Rohingya refugees currently living in the Pasar III temporary shelter on Jl.Jamin Ginting, Medan, North Sumatra, have asked the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to immediately resettle them in a third country. M.Habib, 43, one of Rohingya refugees in Medan, said on Monday that he had never made a problem out of which third country they would be resettled to. This issue would fully depend on the UNHCR’s policy because it was the only institution that had been dealing with issues concerning the Rohingya refugees so far, he added. “The most important thing for us is how we can find a way to not live in the temporary shelter anymore,” said Habib as quoted by Antara news agency. He said the Rohingya refugees in Medan had been living in the city’s temporary shelter for about two to four years. “It’s very...

Jakarta Post: April 6, 2013 The North Sumatra Police have named 18 Rohingya refugees suspects for a fight, which left eight Myanmar fishermen dead and 21 others with injuries, at the Belawan Immigration Detention Center in North Sumatra, a police official said. “They are accused of conducting collective assault and torturing. They face a maximum sentence of 12 years if proven guilty,” local police spokesman Sr. Comr. Heru Prakoso said Saturday. According to police investigations Rohingnya refugees were angered when a female refugee was sexually harassed by the fishermen. “We found no other motive. Thus, speculation that the brawl was because of religious differences wasn’t true,” he said referring to reports that the incident followed a heated debate between a Muslim cleric and the Buddhist fishermen regarding conflict in Myanmar. The refugees came to Indonesia in search of asylum, while the fishermen were detained over alleged illegal fishing activities.