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Time to move out: Jakarta ends aid as UNHCR scrambles to find solution for stranded asylum seekers
After weeks of granting aid to the asylum seekers, the administration decided to pull the plug. The city has asked the UNHCR to manage the refugees as the city wants the building to be vacant before Sunday.
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Asylum seekers staying in the former building of the West Jakarta Military District Command (Kodim) in Kalideres, West Jakarta use water for their activities on Aug. 23. The Jakarta administration has ended their aid to more than 1,000 asylum seekers and only allowed asylum seekers to use the temporary shelter until Aug. 31 at the latest. (JP/Rafaela Chandra)
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undreds of asylum seekers have been asked to move out of their temporary shelter in Kalideres in West Jakarta and to seek their own accommodation amid looming uncertainties about their future.
Officers from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) started on Wednesday gradually dispersing more than 1,000 asylum seekers from various war-torn countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan staying at the shelter.
The move was taken following a request from the Jakarta administration to vacate the former building of the West Jakarta Military Command (Kodim) where they had been staying for the past six weeks. In mid-July, the city administration allowed the asylum seekers camping on the sidewalks across from the UNHCR’s office in Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta to move into the empty building for humanitarian reasons.
Pulling the plug
However, after weeks of granting aid to the asylum seekers, the administration decided to pull the plug. The city has asked the UNHCR to manage the refugees as the city wants the building to be vacant before Sunday.
City secretary Saefullah said the administration could no longer extend the aid to the asylum seekers as the responsibility did not lie with the administration.
“What we have given is enough. We have maximized our efforts to give aid. There are programs from the UNHCR to provide additional aid,” he said at City Hall on Thursday.
