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Jakarta Post

RI to offer OZ islet for refugees

Luhut Panjaitan - JP/Wendra AjistyatamaFollowing concerns that the increasing number of refugees and asylum seekers stranded throughout the archipelago en route to Australia could undermine security, Indonesia has opened up the possibility of offering Australia an island as a temporary camp to shelter the migrants

Rendi A. Witular and Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, November 20, 2015

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RI to offer OZ islet for refugees

Luhut Panjaitan - JP/Wendra Ajistyatama

Following concerns that the increasing number of refugees and asylum seekers stranded throughout the archipelago en route to Australia could undermine security, Indonesia has opened up the possibility of offering Australia an island as a temporary camp to shelter the migrants.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Panjaitan told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that Indonesia'€™s kind offer, however, would come with strict requirements, ranging from financing to limiting the period of use of the island.

'€œWe can discuss the possibility of allocating an island [for the refugees]. But Australia is required to entirely finance it,'€ Luhut said at his private residence in South Jakarta.

According to Luhut, the proposal was not without precedent as Indonesia once had a similar camp on Galang Island near Batam in Riau Islands province that accommodated around 170,000 Vietnamese during the determination of their resettlement in the US, Australia and Europe between 1979 and 1996.

'€œThe discussion about the island should also include limiting the period of the concession. We don'€™t want to repeat the same mistake we made with Galang, where the period of use was just too long,'€ Luhut said.

Jakarta'€™s motivation for the offer was that the many asylum seekers stranded in backwater provinces of Aceh, East Nusa Tenggara and West Nusa Tenggara had the potential to create conflict with local residents who are already living in extreme poverty.

'€œThe asylum seekers there can live sufficiently because of the UNHCR [UN High Commissioner for Refugees] aid. But the people living nearby are left without financial help. This has created envy that may someday become a problem,'€ said Luhut.

'€œThere are also security concerns related to potential terrorism. For example, many Rohingya asylum seekers [an ethnic group from Myanmar] taking shelter in Aceh have been reported missing,'€ he said.

According to the UNHCR, there were 7,666 asylum seekers and 5,739 refugees in Indonesia as of September. All of them paid large amounts to Indonesian handlers to be transported by boat from Indonesia to Australia, only to be stranded in Indonesia or turned back by the Australian Navy.

Between 2012 and 2013 more than 18,000 people without visas arrived in Australia by sea, compared to just 7,300 between 2011 and 2012, according to Australian government statistics.

Special advisor for legal affairs at the Office of Presidential Chief of Staff Lambock V. Nahattands told the Post that the island proposal should be meticulously planned and would need Australia'€™s guarantee that they would be quickly accepted by third countries.

'€œIf we agree to put them in a special area, there should be a guarantee from Australia that they will not be there indefinitely,'€ said Nahattands, a veteran bureaucrat with experience in dealing with resettlement claims for asylum seekers in Galang.

Luhut'€™s offer to Australia came after his visit to Canberra early this week as a follow up to attempts by Jakarta and Canberra to reinvigorate diplomatic ties after new Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull met President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo in Jakarta last week.

'€œTalks about the island are still preliminary. A delegation of Australian officials is slated to be in Jakarta in late December to further discuss the issue,'€ said Luhut.

Asylum seeker issues are prominent in Australia, with the country sending many to be resettled in neighboring Papua New Guinea (PNG) where the camps have been reported to be very inadequate.

As a sign of good faith for future relations, Luhut also demanded Australia end its tow-back policy in which Australian patrol vessels intercept migrant boats and tow them back to Indonesia.

'€œI told them that such actions are wrong and against humanitarian principles. They are still unsure of how to respond, but they are hoping relations between the two countries will be in at an all time high,'€ he said.

Mahfudz Siddiq, chairman of the House of Representatives'€™ Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs, urged the government to be cautious with the proposal.

'€œI don'€™t see the proposal as a viable solution for Indonesia or Australia. On the contrary, it might become an entirely new problem,'€ he said.

'€œWe have to understand that the Australian government has long been wanting to resolve their domestic issue with asylum seekers and [illegal] migration by involving other countries. The concept they proposed has already been implemented in PNG, where they built and funded a detention center,'€ he explained.

'€œOnce a detention center is open here, it will become a long-term issue for us even if Australia is fully funding the project.'€
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