TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Resistance grows against asylum seekers at shelter, sidewalks
The asylum seekers staying at the shelter are those who did not take the compensation offered by the UNHCR in August.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Asylum seekers look through fencing installed on the sidewalks in front of the UNCHR's office on Jl. Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta, on Sept. 17. (JP/Budi Sutrisno)
A
mid the uncertainty encasing their lives in transit city Jakarta, asylum seekers are facing rejections from various parties at a temporary shelter in Kalideres, West Jakarta and the sidewalks of Jl. Kebon Sirih in Central Jakarta, where hundreds have limited resources.
More than a dozen parents of students from Dian Harapan Daan Mogot school, located next to the shelter, which is a former building of the West Jakarta Military Command (Kodim), held a community cleanup activity on the sidewalks in front of the building on Monday.
The cleanup was prompted by the stench of urine allegedly caused by asylum seekers.
Erin, one of the students’ parents who helped coordinate the cleanup, said the activity was organized so as to not further anger locals and prevent clashes.
“We also want the environment to be clean to prevent health problems that may emerge,” she said.
Erin added that after the idea was brought up last week, the parents immediately asked for permission from the school and local authorities to hold the activity.
The authorities helped clean inside the shelter, while locals, accompanied by personnel from the West Jakarta Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) and disaster mitigation and emergency response unit members, cleaned the sidewalks in front of the building.
