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Activists call on Indonesia to put Rohingya refugees in ASEAN spotlight
As this year's ASEAN chair, rights organizations say Indonesia has an opportunity to raise the Rohingya issue to the bloc's agenda, especially as the country had received over 600 Rohingya refugees recently.
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Rohingya refugees eat food in a temporary shelter after arriving by boat on Dec. 27, 2022 in Laweueng, Aceh. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyudin)
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ights activists are calling on Indonesia, which has received over 600 Rohingya refugees in recent weeks, to make use of its ASEAN chairmanship this year to address the issue.
Executive director Atika Yuanita Paraswaty of SUAKA, or the Indonesian Civil Society Association for Refugee Rights Protection, said that it should be lauded that the people of Aceh had been relatively welcoming to the Rohingya refugees who had landed in the province.
She said that while a 2016 presidential regulation facilitated Indonesia’s treatment of refugee arrivals, more needed to be done.
“We appreciate that measure, but unfortunately there are no [provisions] in the regulation that mention fulfilling the rights of refugees while they are here,” Atika said on Friday.
She noted that although the government had not ratified the United Nations’ 1951 Refugee Convention, it had ratified a raft of international human rights conventions that meant Jakarta was still obligated to uphold refugee rights.
Atika said Indonesia needed to intensify diplomatic efforts with neighboring countries, especially Myanmar and other ASEAN states, to help the Rohingya further by minimizing their persecution.
“There is now a good opportunity for that, which is Indonesia's 2023 ASEAN chairmanship [...] because we will have a higher bargaining position to address this issue in ASEAN meetings,” she said.
