Indonesia reiterates refusal to accept illegal migrants<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia, reiterating that it will not
\naccommodate any more illegal migrants, said on Wednesday it would
\nbar a Norwegian freighter carrying 438 asylum seekers, mostly
\nAfghans, to drop anchor in the country following a military
\noperation launched by the Australian government, which has also
\ndenied entry to the ship.<\/p>\n
\"We have no funds to continually accommodate illegal migrants
\nin our country and we have appealed to UNHCR and other
\ninternational migrant organizations to help solve the problem,\"
\nMinister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda told a media
\nbriefing.<\/p>\n
The minister said Indonesia, as of May of this year, had
\naccommodated more than 1,600 illegal migrants from Afghanistan,
\nIran and Iraq who planned to seek asylum in Australia.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's islands have long been prone to piracy and
\nsmuggling, now increasingly in human cargo trying to reach
\nAustralia after fleeing conflict in the Middle East and
\nAfghanistan.<\/p>\n
\"Indonesia will not accept illegal migrants ... although we
\nunderstand that their intention was not to come to Indonesia but
\nto go to Australia,\" Hassan noted.<\/p>\n
Canberra has refused to let the Norwegian freighter Tampa
\nenter Australian waters off its Indian Ocean territory of
\nChristmas Island and says the passengers are Indonesia's
\nresponsibility.<\/p>\n
But in a dramatic development on Wednesday the Norwegian
\ncaptain sailed into Australian territorial waters -- only to be
\nhalted by elite SAS troops who boarded the freighter and took
\ncontrol.<\/p>\n
Hassan said Indonesia was \"under no international obligation\"
\nto accept the asylum seekers.<\/p>\n
Officials of the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees
\n(UNHCR) here were quoted by Reuters as saying on Wednesday that
\nanother large group of asylum seekers trying to reach Australia
\namid a diplomatic row over a stranded boatload of illegal
\nimmigrants is holed up on an Indonesian island off Lombok in West
\nNusa Tenggara.<\/p>\n
Around 150 asylum seekers from mainly Afghanistan and Iraq are
\nstaying at a government guest house in Mataram, a city on eastern
\nLombok. Police said the group had no plan to leave the island,
\n1,100 km east of Jakarta and next to the resort island of Bali.<\/p>\n
Tony Garcia, a UNHCR protection officer in Jakarta, said the
\nLombok group initially numbered about 300 but half had escaped
\nand their whereabouts were unknown.<\/p>\n
\"We sent a team (there). In the meantime some of these people
\nescaped, disappeared. And now we've only got about half of them.
\nThe other half somehow escaped,\" Garcia said.<\/p>\n
The Norwegian ship has been at the center of an international
\nimpasse since the vessel rescued the mainly Afghan asylum seekers
\nfrom a sinking Indonesian ferry last Sunday in the Indian Ocean.
\nAustralia, Indonesia and Norway have all refused to take
\nresponsibility.<\/p>\n
A number of major international aid agencies urged Australia,
\nIndonesia and Norway on Tuesday to resolve the problem of the 438
\nstranded boat people currently holed up on Christmas Island.
\n(tso)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/indonesia-reiterates-refusal-to-accept-illegal-migrants-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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