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strong>Nov. 11, p4

Ahead of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull'€™s visit to Jakarta on Thursday, Indonesia has urged its southern neighbor to find lasting solutions to the irregular movement of migrants in the region.

Hasan Kleib, the Foreign Ministry'€™s director general for multilateral affairs, urged Australia to sit down and talk with other affected countries to brainstorm policies that would benefit all parties and address the root causes of the problem.

'€œThe handling of irregular migrants is a transnational issue. There must be a shared responsibility among countries of origin, transit and destination,'€ Hasan told reporters on the sidelines of a UN event in Jakarta on Tuesday.

'€œWhat we ask '€” given the effect of [Australia'€™s migrant] policies in the region '€” is that we all sit down to talk about sharing responsibilities.'€

According to him, stern policies such as Australia'€™s '€œturn-back-the-boats'€ approach have had unintended effects on countries in the region, with Indonesia itself facing the increasing likelihood of turning into a destination country for asylum seekers turned around by the Australian border patrol.

Your comments:

Indonesia and Australia should sit down and have an adult discussion on how to solve the migrant problem in a mutually beneficial way. There is reason for any party to turn this issue into a political contest. Shipping the migrants to Malaysia is not a solution.

Orang Biasa

The two countries don'€™t face the same problems when it comes to migrants. Australia has fixed the problem with out the help of Indonesia, so now Indonesia should fix its own problems at its borders.

Gonesia

Prime Minister Turnbull can confidently respond that Australia has evaluated its policies and has concluded that they are a resounding success.  Australia is number one globally (on a per capita basis) in the permanent resettlement of migrants, and they are given access to welfare and other government services. Once a person becomes permanently resettled they cease to be migrants unlike Europe where they are only allowed temporary stay.

Comments about turning-back migrants are largely irrelevant. There have been very few incidences of boats being turned away so those comments make no sense.

Some have an interest is getting rid of the Rohingya migrants. Indonesia is a member of ASEAN and should deal with that problem alongside other ASEAN member states, not Australia.

Jagera

The Australian prime minister'€™s stopover in Indonesia is really just a visit out of courtesy as Turnbull is on a 10-day overseas trip that also includes stopovers in Germany, Turkey, the Philippines and Malaysia.

The main reason for his  overseas trip will be to attend the G20 leaders'€™ summit in the Turkish coastal city of Antalya, which is being held a year after Australia hosted the last G20 meeting in Brisbane.

Too many migrant boats have sunk on their way to Australia and this is why the country wants to turn them away. Australia has not said that it will no longer welcome migrants.

In fact, Australia said that it would take in additional Syrian migrants on Nov. 9, more than the 12,000 already announced. The migrants will be taken from the UN refugee camps in Jordan.

As for the 1,000 Rohingya migrants, they were on their way to Malaysia and Indonesia, so Indonesia may have to take care of them.

Eddy Saf