Being reluctantly exiled is foreigner's worst nightmare

By Multa Firdaus

JAKARTA (JP): No one expects to find themselves stranded in a foreign country, far from home, without friends or relatives to share their sorrow. But this is the bitter reality of life in the immigration quarantine center in Kalideres, West Jakarta.

Seventy-six foreigners, including two women, are currently being held in the center. Most of them are waiting and hoping the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will find third countries that will accept them, while others just want to be sent back to their home countries.

Like birds, many of them are locked in four-meter-by-four- meter rooms with barred doors. In these small rooms they sleep, eat, wash and dry their clothes, bathe, pray and go to the toilet. With only 56 cells, some of the detainees must double up.

The corridors were filled with unpleasant smells when The Jakarta Post visited the center last week. Most of the cells were dirty and the walls covered with graffiti. The majority of the foreigners in the quarantine center are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and different African countries.

A 20-year-old, handsome Afghan, Zahid Khan, stood behind the bars of his cell and flashed a friendly smile as the Post approached him.

"There is too much fighting in my country. I don't want to go back there," he opened the conversation in English.

Behind Zahid, a football coach from Pakistan, Najib Karim, seemed troubled. He was standing, looking out the window and talking to himself while pointing at something outside, beyond his bars.

Meanwhile, in a cell across the corridor, a 27-year-old man asked the Post to call him Jim Morrison Jr. He said he had spent 12 years in his cell. "I just want papers to write," said the young man who claimed to hail from Jupiter.

He repeatedly referred to a Linda Goodman. "Linda wakes up again, Linda is my teacher," he said, adding that he loved Indonesia and wanted to stay here forever.

It was obvious he suffers from mental illness, and he is not the only one.

A 45-year-old man from China, Chen Lik Chon, was standing in his room holding his penis. He has been detained at the quarantine center since January 1995. He did not speak, but made a gesture to ask for a cigarette.

Jamaican Joseph Horrison, who has been detained since March 1995, did not stop shouting and banging on the door of his cell.

Another detainee, a 21-year-old Croatian named Danco Jiavic, sat quietly in his cell and stared blankly at the door. He has spent three years in the cell. "I want to go back to my country, but I don't have a ticket," he said, adding that he only had the T-shirt and shorts he was wearing.

"I am very sick now and my teeth are becoming soft. I cannot sleep for weeks," said the man, who claimed to be an orphan. He said he was caught by immigration officers at Tanjung Priok Port in early 1998.

Other detainees have complaints about their health. A 41-year- old Iraqi who has been held for eight months said he was suffering from kidney and prostate problems. Before he was taken to the quarantine center, he was hospitalized twice in Jakarta. The man said he had a wife and child in Iran, and he wanted UNHCR to relocated him to a third country. "I don't want to go back to Iraq. There is always war, bombs, gunshots until I can do nothing."

Three Africans from Sierra Leone -- Benjamin Norman, 25, Melvin Valentine, 24, and Abu Kamara, 18, also are seeking the help of UNHCR. "We don't want to die here. Please tell UNHCR that we think of our future," they told the Post.

A Sri Lankan, Gengatharan, said he would leave the quarantine center next week because he had received refugee status from UNHCR. He does not want to go back to his country because of the war there.

Jamaludin, 47, the only Malaysian in the center, said he lost his passport last month and hoped to return home soon.

All of the detainees are being held at the center for immigration violations. Those who have travel documents can be deported with the help of their respective embassies here. But problems arise when they do not have any papers to prove their citizenship.

John Charles Sawor, 75, is the oldest detainee and he said he has been quarantined since 1955. He claims to be an American journalist from a reputed paper who was assigned to cover the Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung in 1955. He said he lost his passport and the United States refused to accept him because he had no documents.

John said he wanted to die here. Holding a small radio, he said he had no more hope for life. It is difficult to understand him because he mumbles his words. His tearful eyes were almost closed. His room was squalid and packed with dirty clothes. "I am alone in this world," said the Native American.

John is one of a number of foreigners who do not have to remain in their cells. He has gained the trust of the immigration officers and has the freedom to walk by himself around the quarantine center, or even in the surrounding neighborhood.

Help

According to the head of the complex, Hatomy, the quarantine center is facing numerous problems. "The main problem is funding. The government does not allocate funds to treat those detainees who have mental problems," he told the Post by phone on Monday.

He said the center can only afford to take detainees to a nearby medical clinic for treatment or to a hospital in Tangerang for those who are seriously ill.

"For a long time, we have been expecting the government to provide a medical doctor to treat the sick. We also expect foundations or non-governmental organizations to lend us a hand to cope with the problems," he said.

Hatomy said caring for the foreigners posed a heavy burden. "We want to send them back to their countries, but we don't have the money to buy them tickets."

The embassies of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq also have financial problems that prevent them from helping return the detainees to their countries, he said.

Indonesia currently houses about 880 illegal immigrants who entered the country without proper documents.

According to a report issued last month, UNHCR has granted refugee status to 386 foreigners and is processing 368 others. The status of the other detainees remains unresolved.