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new presidential regulation specifying procedures for handling asylum seekers has been lauded for its guarantee to protect asylum seekers, ending the frequent bottlenecks at harbors and immigration offices each time a large group of migrants hits the coast of Sumatra.

Presidential Regulation No. 125/2016 assures that Indonesia will not turn back boats of asylum seekers approaching the nation’s shores, and instead obliges search and rescue teams and officials to help them and provide food and shelter.

However, asylum seekers and migrant advocates are keeping a close eye on the implementation of the new rules.

The regulation’s Article 29, for instance, stipulates that the government has the right to deport asylum seekers once their applications have been rejected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which has the right to determine the status of asylum seekers in the country.

Husam Mahmood Faraj, an asylum seeker from Iraq who is currently staying at an immigration detention center in Batam, Riau Islands, said he could not return to his homeland, because he was fleeing a government that had hunted and tried to kill him in Baghdad.

He said he was on the Iraqi government’s wanted list because he used to be a television reporter and had reported on the poor conditions in the country since the United States-led invasion.

“I decided to leave from Iraq with my wife and my brother-in-law. It is impossible for me to go back,” said Husam, who arrived by boat two years ago.

Indonesia has seen waves of asylum seekers fleeing from Afghanistan and other war-torn Middle East countries and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, over the past two years.

According to UNHCR, Indonesia is hosting 5,957 refugees, while the status of 7,591 asylum seekers is pending approval. It is the third country in the Asia-Pacific region by number of asylum claims lodged, after Malaysia and India.

The surge in asylum seekers entering the country, mostly in Aceh, has been met with hostility by local administrations.

Last year, Indonesia was criticized for its treatment of a group of Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka, who were stranded on a beach in Lhoknga, Aceh.

The Aceh provincial government refused to allow them to disembark for one week, confining them to their grounded boat.

The local administration argued that the asylum seekers lacked proper documentation and that the authorities had no budget to look after them, after earlier facing problems while hosting hundreds of Rohingya Muslims.

UNHCR officials in Riau Islands said that aside from ensuring the protection of asylum seekers, the new regulation brought no significant changes from previous regulations. The UN body is still processing applications for people who mostly want to go to the US, New Zealand or Australia.

Batam Immigration Office head Teguh Prayitno said he was waiting for concrete instructions from the central government. “We are still awaiting instruction for implementing the new regulation,” said Teguh.

Febionesta, the head of migrant advocacy group Suaka, praised the new regulation as “good progress”.

He also said the government had the right to deport those whose applications were rejected, but before doing so, should ensure that every asylum seeker had their rights fulfilled.

“The challenge lies in the implementation of the regulation,” he said.