Indonesia accepts Kurdish boat people, seeks UN help<\/p>\n
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post , Jakarta<\/p>\n
Indonesia is ready to take 14 boat people back who were refused
\nentry to Australia, but will not allow them to settle in the
\ncountry, a minister said on Monday.<\/p>\n
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla said
\nthe Indonesian government would ask the United Nations High
\nCommission for Refugees (UNHCR) to take care of the people.<\/p>\n
"They will be treated as ordinary refugees, and they will be
\nthe responsibility of the UNHCR," Kalla said before attending a
\nlimited Cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n
He said such incidents had happened many times before and the
\nUNHCR was used to dealing with the problem. Many of the refugees
\nwere housed in its shelter in the Puncak area near Bogor in West
\nJava, some 70 kilometers south of Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The 14 asylum-seekers aboard the Minasa Bone vessel, believed
\nto be Kurds, landed in the eastern Indonesian island of Yamdena
\non Saturday and police took them Samlaki town for questioning.<\/p>\n
Samlaki Police chief Ahmad Yani told AFP on Monday that the
\nboat people would be transferred to Ambon for immigration
\nprocessing.<\/p>\n
"They are currently in our custody but will be sent to Ambon
\nby sea tomorrow," Yani said.<\/p>\n
Yani said the police were also seeking two or three other
\npeople who had been on the Indonesian flagged vessel, which is
\nalso believed to have been crewed by Indonesians.<\/p>\n
Both minister Kalla and Yani said there had been no
\ncommunications with the Australian side.<\/p>\n
The Australian navy had escorted the boatload of suspected
\nasylum seekers, who made it as far as a northern Australian
\nisland, back to Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Australian immigration minister Amanda Vanstone said the boat
\nwas escorted to the edge of Indonesian waters before making its
\nown way to Indonesia's island of Yamdena.<\/p>\n
She also claimed that her government had been in contact with
\nthe Indonesian government regarding the vessel.<\/p>\n
The conservative government of Prime Minister John Howard
\ninvoked extraordinary powers to remove Melville Island and some
\n4,000 others from Australia's migration zone, effectively making
\nit impossible for the Kurds to apply for asylum.<\/p>\n
The decision has drawn strong criticism from the UN, refugee
\ngroups and opposition politicians.<\/p>\n
Kalla said the Indonesian government was not in a position to
\ncomment on Australia's immigration policy, but asserted Jakarta
\nhad to accept responsibility for the fate of the boat people.<\/p>\n
The 12-meter Minasa Bone is only the second vessel to have
\nreached Australian territory since a 2001 crackdown on illegal
\nimmigrants.<\/p>\n
Indonesia is a regular route taken by asylum seekers, mostly
\nfrom the Middle East, to reach Australia.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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