Asylum seekers removed from UN office<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Police removed some 150 asylum seekers from Central Asia and
\nthe Middle East from the Arya building, which houses the UN High
\nCommissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Jakarta, on Monday.<\/p>\n
The asylum seekers, including women and children from Iran,
\nIraq and Afghanistan, had been staging a sit-in at the building
\nsince Friday to demand that the UN agency speed up the process of
\nsending them to third countries in the West.<\/p>\n
There was some resistance from the asylum seekers during the
\nevacuation process, but there were no reported injuries. They
\nwere sent back to their temporary shelters.<\/p>\n
Kemala Angraini Ahwil, UNHCR Jakarta office spokeswoman, told
\nthe asylum seekers that they were not protesting on UN premises
\nbecause UNHCR was only a tenant in the building, Antara said.<\/p>\n
Some 100 of the asylum seekers have been given refugee status
\nand are awaiting news of their acceptance into a Western country.<\/p>\n
The UNHCR office in Jakarta has granted refugee status to some
\n500 of the estimated 1,400 asylum seekers from the Middle East
\nand Central Asia currently in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Many asylum seekers have used Indonesia as a jumping point to
\nenter Australia illegally. On Sunday, Indonesian authorities
\nintercepted an Australia-bound boat carrying 170 asylum seekers
\noff Sumbawa island in East Nusa Tenggara.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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