Humanitarian disaster threatens Sri Lankan asylum seekers
By Eliswan Azly
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A humanitarian disaster may befall around 255 Sri Lankan asylum seekers on a wooden boat that has been berthed at Indah Kiat sea port in Cilegon, Banten province, for more than a month.
"Until now, the Indonesian government has yet to make any effort to find the best solution for those Sri Lankan asylum seekers," said Kiagus Ahmad Bella Sati, a member of the Combined Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) for Civilian Community Solidarity, here on Wednesday.
Kiagus who is also the head of the Legal Aid Institute for Advocacy and Case Handling said the Sri Lankan refugees` plight had to do with the lack of seriousness with which the government was handling their case.
On October 10, 2009, the Indonesian navy captured around 255 asylum seekers consisting of men, women and children of the Tamil tribe while their boat was entering the Sunda Strait, off the Cilegon coast.
Now, the asylum seekers are still living in their wooden boat tied up at a pier of Indah Kiat port in Cilegon under tight naval surveillance.
According to Kiagus, the tight security had also narrowed the refugees` access to the outside world, so that all kinds of humanitarian aid could not be distributed to them.
In fact, the tight security was also curtailing the distribution of aid from the
International Organization of Migration (IOM) which was responsible for meeting the regugees` basic needs.
Kiagus said Indonesia should actually allow the refugees more free access to the humanitarian aid which was meant merely to meet their basic needs.
"Those asylum seekers were on their way to Australia when an Indonesian navy patrol intercepted and captured them in Indonesian waters," Kiagus said.
Sharing Kiagus`s view was Ali Akbar, a researcher of the Human Right Working Group, who said that Indonesia should enable the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to meet and make an inventory of the asylum seekers.
"Indonesia should leave the fate of the refugees to UNHCR as the most appropriate party to find the best solution to their fate," Akbar said.
According to him, eventhough Indonesia had yet to ratify the convention on the Status of Refugees of 1951, the government could not expel or ignore the fate of the asylum seekers.
Considering that Indonesia had already ratified the convention against torture of 1965 through Law No 5/1998 while under the convention`s Article 3, section (1), the government was not allowed to expel, deport or extradite someone to his/her country if there are strong and reliable reasons to believe the person concerned was in danger of experiencing torture if repatriated.
Those Sri Lankans had to seek for asylum in order to avoid armed conflict and violence from the majority tribe in their country, Akbar said adding that the government through relevant agencies should make a legal instrument on Indonesian policy pertaining to foreign refugees-related regulations.
Earlier, it was reported that the 255 asylum-seekers once threatened to blow up their boat if the Indonesian navy forced them to disembark at the port after the large cargo boat they were piloting toward Christmas Island broke down.
"We have gas canisters and we have told the navy we will blow up the boat and jump into the ocean if they try to force us off the boat," said a spokesman for the asylum-seekers, who would only give his name as Alex.
Alex said the Sri Lankans had each paid $US15,000 ($16,533) to be transported by the wooden craft from Malaysia 13 days ago, after arriving in the neighboring country by air from Jaffna.
"If the authorities in Sri Lanka know this is me on this boat, they will hunt down my wife and children in Jaffna and kill them," the frightened man said. "I have been waiting for my wife and children to follow me here. We need to get to Australia as soon as possible."
The Sri Lankan asylum-seekers and six Indonesian crew members were under military guard aboard their cargo boat after being intercepted while trying to reach Christmas Island.
In the meantime, the Australian daily reported that Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd confirmed he had made a personal plea to Yudhoyono to intercept the Sri Lankan refugees in their boat.
Alex, meanwhile, denied that those on board the boat were associated with Tamil Tigers. "We are civilians, not Tamil Tigers. Every day there are Tamils being killed and raped in the refugee camps. Men are blindfolded and shot in the back of the head."
"In Sri Lanka, if you are Tamil, there is no opportunity - the government can detain you without cause, and take you to trial without evidence," he said, adding that his group`s choice of Australia as a destination was not based on intimate knowledge of federal government immigration policy, but simply "because we had to flee somewhere".
However, Alex refused to give details of the agent who had taken money from members for the group in Malaysia, repeatedly saying he feared for his life.
A military source, who refused to be named, said navy ships guarding the asylum-seekers had accompanied the boat after it was intercepted in the Sunda Strait near Anak Krakatau, an active volcano that attracts thousands of tourists to its spectacular displays.
"We`re guarding them so that no one can get on or off, and so they don`t escape. We never curtail the distribution of humanitarian aid to those refugees," the source said.
Meanwhile, Indonesian police said they were investigating whether the six Indonesian crew members on board were part of a people-smuggling ring.
Thousands of asylum-seekers from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Sri Lanka and Burma use Indonesia as a staging point to get to Australia where they apply for refugee status, often travelling first through Malaysia.
Many make their initial applications to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Jakarta, giving them temporary right to stay in the country while their claims are processed.
A large number of them then use this opportunity to organise risky voyages such as the most recent one to be intercepted, often with the help of organised people-smuggling rings.
Australia has launched a joint policing program with Indonesia to combat the people trafficking waves, with at least a dozen ports across the country being targeted. (*)
COPYRIGHT © 2009 ANTARA
PubDate: 11/19/09 09:20
