T

he United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will support whatever policy is taken by the Indonesian government on refugees so long as it respects human rights and does not force refugees to return to their home countries.

Jeffrey Savage, the UNHCR’s senior protection officer, told The Jakarta Post in Batam on Friday that his organization had heard about the idea to place refugees on one island.

He said the UNHCR had asked the government to review the idea carefully because such a measure could lead to problems and could potentially create conflict.

“First of all, there are 48 different nationalities,” Savage said after meeting with local administration officials to discuss the issue.

He said the success story of how the Batam administration and the central government had dealt with Vietnamese refugees on Galang Island, Batam, 30 years ago, would not serve as a suitable reference point for the current influx of refugees because of the diversity of nationalities present in the refugees.

The idea of placing refugees on one island, according to Savage, was once implemented by Australia. He said this kind of policy limited the movement of the refugees.

He also emphasized that policies on refugees were the sole purview of the Indonesian government and that his side could only offer suggestions.

Based on UNHCR data, there are 13,700 asylum seekers and refugees in Indonesia, much lower than the number of those in Malaysia and Thailand, which amount to the hundreds of thousands. In Bangladesh, the figure reaches up to 2 million.

The UNCHR has an annual budget of US$4 million for its operations in Indonesia.

The budget is considered small because it is spent on supporting the refugees and also on covering staff salaries and other necessities.

The organization cannot say when the refugees will leave Indonesia because this depends on the willingness of other countries to accept them.

“If you ask how long the refugees will be staying here, my answer is I don’t know,” Savage said.

Batam immigration office data shows that there are currently 362 refugees in Batam, 280 of whom are being accommodated at the Kolekta Hotel and 61 at the office’s detention center.

They are all financially supported by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which has been a part of the UN for the last two weeks, according to Savage.

Previously, the Batam administration sent a letter to the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister asking for the removal of the refugees from the city because their presence had caused social problems.

Batam administration spokesperson Ardiwinata told the Post on Friday that Batam Mayor Muhammad Rudi suggested placing all the refugees and asylum seekers on an island outside of Batam, citing the city’s success in dealing with Vietnamese refugees on Galang Island as an example to follow.

“The mayor’s idea was shared during a forum, but was not detailed in the letter sent to the coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister,” Ardiwinata said.

He said placing the refugees on a single island would ease monitoring efforts and at the same time maintain local harmony in Batam.

“Moreover, we have hundreds of islands here, some are not inhabited,” he said, adding that the idea was still being discussed at the city level.