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Like it or not, Indonesia is a transit country for refugees
With more than 17,000 islands and a coastline spanning more than 99,000 kilometers, it is reasonable to assume there are unlimited opportunities to enter Indonesia by boat undetected.
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Facing uncertainty: Evacuated Rohingya people from Myanmar sit on the shorelines of Lancok village, in North Aceh regency on June 25, 2020. Nearly 100 Rohingya from Myanmar, including 30 children, have been rescued from a rickety wooden boat off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island, a maritime official said. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin) (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
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few weeks ago Immigration Director General Silmy Karim remarked on his Instagram account that “We don't want Indonesia to be a transit country for refugees and we also don't want their presence to cause new social problems.”
Such a perspective is understandable. Having worked with refugees and asylum seekers who were in the care of my agency, however, I, with due respect, beg to differ on this matter. As far as I am concerned, Indonesia’s historical experience with international migrants has been long and complicated.
First, transit migration, as it is often said, is a complex mobility process. Since the early 1990s, when the term “transit migration” appeared in the public policy debate following the changing patterns of immigration laws in European countries to constrain international migration, scholars have not reached a consensus on what constitutes transit migration.
In addition, transit migration is strongly associated with forced migration (particularly refugee and asylum seeker movements and that associated with disasters) and irregular migration.
Irregular migrants include those purposely entering a country without proper authorization, those unknowingly crossing a border without authorization, and those coming to a country regularly, and later becoming irregular due to administrative overstay.
The reasons why migrants use regular or irregular modes of migration may be attributed to a lack of knowledge regarding administrative regulation, but may also be a deliberate choice. Shifting from one category of transit migrant to another is common.
Therefore, transit migration, according to many scholars, includes a wide range of such different kinds of migrants as asylum seekers, refugees, documented migrants, irregular migrants, victims of trafficking and students.
