P

EKANBARU: The central government'€™s intention to turn a Riau island into a shelter to accommodate Rohingya asylum seekers from Myanmar seems hard to realize because of the lack of a suitable place.

'€œNone of the islands [in the province] is suitable and can accommodate the number of refugees, as those in Riau are small ones,'€ Riau Border Management Agency (BPPD) head Ramli Walid said on Friday.

The central government is planning to relocate between 1,000 and 2,000 people from the around 10,000 Rohingya refugees who have entered Indonesian territory at Riau. According to Ramli, an island measuring around 500 hectares is needed to accommodate them.

'€œThe islands in Riau are small,'€ he said, adding that some were just 15 or 20 hectares and none of them reached 100 hectares.

The Riau provincial administration initially planned to turn Jemur Island, one of the country'€™s outer islands located in the Rokan Hilir regency, into a shelter camp for the asylum seekers.

The Riau BPPD and related agencies in Rokan Hilir have also inspected the island, according to Ramli.

'€œAfter studying all aspects, we concluded that Jemur Island did not meet the necessary requirements. It is too small and has many huge rocks that would endanger the refugees if they stayed there,'€ he said.