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Far from home, asylum seekers mark Idul Adha despite limitations
Asylum seekers in West Jakarta marked Idul Adha with boxed meals provided by the Jakarta Social Affairs Agency, but still face limited water and poor sanitation on a daily basis.
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A Jakarta Social Affairs Agency official distributes bags of boxed meals to asylum seekers on Aug. 12 at a temporary shelter in Kalideres, West Jakarta. (JP/Nina Loasana)
I
t was a quiet Idul Adha (Day of Sacrifice) for the more than 1,000 Muslim asylum seekers sheltering at a former building of the West Jakarta district military command (Kodim) in Kalideres.
They held neither the qurban ritual of sacrificial cattle or goats nor any celebratory event as they continued their day-to-day lives at the shelter, kilometers from their countries of origin.
"There was no special celebration or event. After performing the Idul Adha prayer [on Sunday morning], we just greeted and congratulated each other briefly before returning to our tents," Alikhan, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, told The Jakarta Post on Monday in fluent Indonesian.
However, a taste of the Idul Adha festivity was provided by the Jakarta Social Affairs Agency, which distributed cooked qurban meat to the 1,151 asylum seekers at the temporary shelter.
Social safety head Tarmijo Damanik said the agency had provided the qurban meat as a gesture of Idul Adha, as it had.stopped providing aid to asylum seekers on July 31, when the responsibility was transferred to the Indonesia representative office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
“Officials of the Jakarta Social Affairs Agency donated 25 cows for Idul Adha. The meat from the sacrifice was distributed to social homes, local residents, agency officials and asylum seekers,” Damanik told the Post by phone on Tuesday.
He said that agency staff had cooked the meat beforehand for the convenience of asylum seekers at the West Jakarta shelter.
