42 Vietnamese stranded in West Nusa Tenggara
42 Vietnamese stranded in West Nusa Tenggara
Luh Putu Trisna Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Mataram,
West Nusa Tenggara
Forty-two Vietnamese boat people who left the South Kalimantan
capital of Banjarmasin for Australia three weeks ago have turned
up in the West Nusa Tenggara capital Mataram.
West Nusa Tenggara Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. H.M. Basri
said on Thursday security guards detained the boat people at Sape
Port last Tuesday.
They were arrested for not having the necessary documents to
pass through Indonesian waters, the officer said.
"The police are having trouble interrogating them because they
only speak Vietnamese," Basri said.
The local representative of the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) is currently handling the matter, he said.
The boat people left Vietnam on April 6 to seek political
asylum in Australia. They were found drifting off the Banjarmasin
coast without food and with a damaged boat engine on April 18.
Officials there counted 19 men, 13 women and 10 children
crammed inside a 15-meter-long boat they said was not seaworthy.
After providing them with food and fuel, the boat people were
allowed to continue their trip, a move that irked Australia.
Australia has repeatedly asked Indonesia to prevent refugees
from entering its shores. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer reiterated this call during last month's international
conference on people smuggling in Bali.
Australia has been a favored destination for illegal migrants
from troubled countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam over
the past few years.
The IOM representative in Mataram, Yong Lai Kong, met with the
boat people and confirmed that they were seeking political asylum
in Australia.
"We'll coordinate with the UNHCR representative here to ask
for its help to assess whether the refugees will be awarded the
status of refugees," he said.
Quoting the Vietnamese, Yong said they viewed the Vietnamese
government as repressive and the country as unstable politically
and economically.
"They told me that the regime in Vietnam is quite repressive
and that is why they fled and are seeking a third country to
provide them political asylum," he said.
This is the first time authorities in Mataram have intercepted
Vietnamese migrants. So far 919 illegal migrants, mainly from
Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, have been detained in Mataram.
The process to determine the status of the Vietnamese could
take months.
Yong added that his office was trying to send home more than
35 illegal Iraqi migrants now stranded in Mataram.
"We are waiting for the situation in Iraq to improve following
the coalition forces' aggression in that country so we can send
them back home," he said.
He said many Iraqis fled former president Saddam Hussein's
repressive regime, and one of their favorite destinations was
Australia.
Residents of Mataram have expressed their displeasure at the
presence of the migrants. The city administration has been asked
to send the migrants home immediately because many of them are
alleged to have committed crimes while in the city.
"They (migrants) have been involved in several rape and
robbery cases, and have had clashes with locals in entertainment
centers in the city," said an owner of a hotel in Mataram.