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Afghan refugees hope to meet with UNHCR

Ten Afghan citizens being detained in Pekanbaru for illegally entering Indonesia hope to meet representatives from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Jakarta in a bid to seek asylum

Rizal Harahap (The Jakarta Post)
Pekanbaru
Thu, March 12, 2009

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Afghan refugees hope to meet with UNHCR

T

en Afghan citizens being detained in Pekanbaru for illegally entering Indonesia hope to meet representatives from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Jakarta in a bid to seek asylum.

"Every time the gate opens we hope to meet people from UNHCR. If you have friends at the UNHCR office in Jakarta, please tell them about our conditions here," Chaman Ali, one of the Afghan refugees at an immigration center, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Besides Chaman, 29, the other refugees were identified as Jamal Murtaza, 28, Sajjad Husain 26, Abuzar, 23, Sultan, 28, Kharimi M Husain, 55, Ahmad Shaa , 26, Abdul Qayum, 50, Shukur Allah, 25, and Abdul Karim, 43.

Chaman said he and his friends had to leave Afghanistan to avoid being killed by anti-government Taliban fighters.

"My mother told me to escape after my three brothers were killed by the Taliban. I was considered a traitor after working as a UNHCR volunteer in Kabul," the resident of Nawooy district, Ghazni province, said.

Helped by an agent who asked for payments between US$2,000 and $3,000, the Afghans fled in a plane to several countries in the Arabian peninsula before landing in Malaysia, Chaman said.

He said the agent suggested the Afghans go to the UNHCR office in Jakarta because the Kuala Lumpur branch was considered unresponsive. "I don't know the agent. There are so many agents in Kabul. We just believed them because they managed to help people out of Afghanistan."

Using a covered vehicle, the refugees then moved from Kuala Lumpur airport to the harbor and along with 29 illegal Indonesian migrant workers, transferred to Indonesia via ship. The refugees and workers were arrested by the Indonesian Navy in Bagan Siapi-api beach, Rokan Hilir, Riau, during a patrol last week.

"We have no identification cards and passports because the agent seized our documents before we boarded the ship," Chaman said.

Meanwhile, head of the immigration detention center Yanizur said the Afghans were being handled by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which assists the UNHCR taking care the refugees.

"We just facilitate their daily needs. It's the domain of the UNHCR because they are victims of civil war," Yanizur said.

He said an IOM representative officer had visited the detention center to bring Kharimi, who suffers from diabetes and heart illnesses, for medical treatment.

Separately, head of the immigration division of the Riau provincial office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Wawan Soewarna, said the government could not set a time limit for how long the refugees would remain in detention at Pekanbaru.

But he said the Afghans would not be allowed to stay in Indonesia forever because it was not their destination. "Indonesia is already overpopulated. Their existence would burden us."

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