East Timorese in Australia still welcomed here: Alatas
East Timorese in Australia still welcomed here: Alatas
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said
yesterday that the door is open to the 700 East Timorese in
Australia if they want to return after having their request for
political asylum rejected.
"They are all Indonesian citizens anyhow," Alatas told
journalists after accompanying UN Secretary Boutros-Boutros Ghali
around Merdeka Palace.
Alatas said the government needs to know why the East Timorese
applied for asylum. "I think they over-stayed their visa and it's
just an immigration problem," he added.
About 700 East Timorese reportedly arrived at different parts
of Australia over the past several months and requested political
asylum.
But the Australian Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs
Senator Nick Bolkus said in Jakarta this week that the East
Timorese were turned down because their reasons were
unacceptable.
Top Indonesian military officials have hinted that Indonesia
should not allow the youths to return on the grounds that the
asylum seekers have betrayed their country.
Maj. Gen. Adang Ruchiatna, chief of the Udayana military
command overseeing security in East Timor, suggested that the
East Timorese try their luck in Portugal.
On Thursday, the Indonesian ministry of foreign affairs issued
a statement saying the asylum seekers have "betrayed the trust of
two countries."
"Indonesia, which never put any political pressure on them in
any way, let them go as tourists and Australia has received them
as tourists," the statement read.
Alatas said that the ministry is awaiting a complete report
from the Indonesian embassy in Canberra on the asylum bid,
including the exact number of the East Timorese.
"The Australian government's rejection of their asylum status
is correct because they are not eligible," he said.
Immigration authorities in Bali, where most of the East
Timorese departed from, have said that an estimated 98 percent of
the 700 asylum seekers' passports were issued by the immigration
office in Dili, the capital of East Timor.
Chief of the Bali immigration office H.B. Lapian said that
between August and December last year, an average of 200 East
Timorese obtained passports every month.
The Australian ministry for immigration and ethnic affairs has
announced it will tighten the immigration procedures for East
Timorese.
The ministry, as quoted by the Australian embassy in a press
statement, said that East Timorese arriving in Australia will now
have to specify the purpose of their visit. (pan)