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iting the financial and supervisory burden, Indonesia aims to persuade Australia to let in more refugees who intend to enter Australia but are currently stranded in many parts of Indonesia.

The Law and Human Rights Ministry'€™s director general of immigration, Ronny F. Sompie, told recently that his office was currently too short of funds and human resources to fully manage the asylum seekers and refugees.

'€œWe hope Australia will consider increasing its take of the refugees, although we know they will apply a very selective process before accepting them,'€ said the former Bali Police chief, who assumed the immigration job in August last year.

He said the country'€™s 13 immigrant detention centers were already experiencing extreme overcapacity, as the number of illegal migrants had soared more than fivefold over the past seven years.

According to UN refugee agency UNHCR, 5,277 refugees and 7,911 asylum seekers reside in Indonesia as of June last year. An asylum seeker is someone who says he or she is a refugee, but whose claim has not yet been definitively evaluated.

Only those with refugee status from the UNHCR can be resettled to third countries.

However, resettlement is an extremely lengthy and open-ended process. According to UNHCR figures, only 372 refugees residing in Indonesia have been resettled as of August last year.

Ronny said he would extend his appeal to relevant ministers attending the upcoming Bali Process '€” an international event on people-smuggling and related transnational crime.

The event will be held on March 22 and 23, cochaired by Indonesia and Australia.

'€œWe have to temporarily take care of them. It'€™s actually not only our responsibility, but also that of other countries and institutions, including the Australian government and the UNHCR,'€ Ronny said, adding that all costs during the stay were covered by the Indonesian government, the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration.

Although Ronny had yet to accept an invitation by his Australian counterpart to visit Australia, he expected to forge better relations with all stakeholders with regard to the handling of asylum seekers and refugees.

Ronny stressed that Indonesia needed a stronger partnership with Australia on information technology to handle the asylum seekers and should jointly monitor and conduct profile checks in an attempt to prevent terrorism and human trafficking.

'€œWe know that such refugees are vulnerable to human trafficking by certain parties who want to profit from their suffering,'€ he said.

Meutya Hafid, the deputy chairman of House of Representatives'€™ Commission I, which oversees defense and foreign affairs, said Indonesia should not walk alone in handling the asylum seekers.

Prospective destination countries of the refugees should also chip in to find a solution that would not be a burden to Indonesia, she said.

'€œAustralia, as a country that recognizes human rights, should be willing to open the door for the refugees,'€ said the Golkar Party politician.

Meutya expressed her hope that during the Bali Process, Indonesia could get the Australian government to accept more refugees.

'€œThe refugees mostly come from conflict areas. They need a safe place to live. Therefore, Australia should consider the human rights aspect of this matter,'€ she said.