4,400 Indochinese boat people are still on Galang island
4,400 Indochinese boat people are still on Galang island
By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat
JAKARTA (JP): An estimated 4,400 Indochinese boat people are currently living on Galang, after the government's deadline of Dec. 31 to clear the island in the Riau province passed, a United Nations official said yesterday.
Jean-Noel Wetterwald, the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Indonesia, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the Indonesian government is expected to set a new deadline at a meeting in Geneva with other countries facing similar problems, in March.
The decision on a new deadline will be taken during the meeting of the steering committee of the Comprehensive Plan of Action in the Swiss city, he said.
The plan of action was formulated in 1989 to help expedite the return of the boat people from various refugee processing centers in Asia, including Indonesia.
There are currently 11,000 Indochinese boat people throughout East Asia who failed to qualify for refugee status, and lost their opportunity to be resettled in advanced industrialized countries. Indonesia, along with other Asian recipient countries, had earlier hoped that the remaining boat people from Vietnam and Cambodia would return to their respective homes under voluntary repatriation programs.
Only 17 of the 4,400 boat people on Indonesia's Galang island, located just south of Singapore, have been accorded refugee status while the rest have to return to Vietnam.
In the past 20 years, the island has been a temporary home for about 248,000 boat people .
Indonesia wants to vacate the island to develop it as part of the Balerang bonded zone area which would cover Batam, Rempang and Galang islands.
The passing of the December 1995 deadline marks another postponement of the development project after the previous targets of December 1994 and August 1995 were also missed.
Malaysia hosts some 4,000 boat people near Kuala Lumpur, while the Philippines still have 2,800 on Palawan island, 580 kilometers west of Manila. There are also 6,600 Laotian asylum seekers in Thailand.
While Wetterwald could not give a new deadline, the UNHCR announced last week that it would be ending financial assistance on July 1.
The UNHCR supports the care and maintenance of the boat people including other costs related to their repatriation such as flights and pocket money.
Success
"We are talking about slightly above $1 million a year," Wetterwald said of UNHCR's current expenditure at Galang.
The Indonesian government only covers the cost of security arrangements on the island.
While funds will be cut in July, Wetterwald promised the UNHCR's commitment in helping Jakarta wind up the problem of the boat people .
"The UNHCR will stand by and assist the Indonesian government until the end, there is no doubt about that," he said.
He noted that repatriation from Galang has been one of the most rapid and successful operations, compared to those of other refugee processing centers in Asia.
"Unlike all the other countries in the region, Indonesia is the only country where for two successive years our numbers of voluntary repatriants has increased," he said, noting that 2,000 people were repatriated in 1994 and another 2,100 in 1995.
He admitted that since March 1995 the voluntary repatriation program has slowed down. At the time, there were 5,300 boat people on Galang.
"Some initiatives have been taken by the American Congress which had a strong impact on our voluntary repatriation program, because some Vietnamese boat people were led to believe that they might go to the United States," Wetterwald said.
However, he remarked that if voluntary repatriation picks up again, the UNHCR "might eventually consider some additional funding."
Simplified procedures have been set up with Hanoi which will allow the boat people 's return without having to be interviewed by Vietnamese officials.
"Now we only have to submit the biodata of the people in the camps and Vietnam will clear them on the basis of the forms they receive," Wetterwald explained.
He added that the strong resolve shown by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) during a recent meeting on the boat people in Bangkok has made those refusing repatriation realize that there is no choice but to return.
"The Bangkok meeting showed that ASEAN wanted to close the camps and is ready to confront the Vietnamese boat people in the camps," he said.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, which formally joined the group last year.
"ASEAN has decided that they will speed up the return to Vietnam, and Vietnam, which is part of ASEAN, has pledged full cooperation," he added.