ICRC allowed access to repatriated migrants

ICRC allowed access to repatriated migrants

JAKARTA (JP): Representatives of the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC) will visit Aceh soon to meet 500 Acehnese
recently repatriated from Malaysia for illegally migrating there.

The office "has received a green light from the Indonesian
government to visit Acehnese who were recently deported from
Malaysia. The ICRC welcomes the decision and will very soon carry
out the visit to the province together with the Indonesian Red
Cross," ICRC spokeswoman Sri Wahyu Endah told The Jakarta Post.

She said in addition to seeing those returned from Malaysia,
the ICRC team would also visit people detained in Aceh on
suspicion of violating Indonesian security laws. Endah did not
say how many were being detained.

At least 14 people, who say they are from Aceh and claim to
face torture if returned to their homeland, have taken refuge in
the Kuala Lumpur office of the United Nations High Commissioner
of Refugees (UNHCR).

The UNHCR says it will decide on their fate after receiving
information on what has happened to those returned to Aceh, where
separatist movements have flared on and off over the years.

The ICRC said in a statement that it also hoped to visit
military camps where the Indonesian government says no more
detainees are being kept.

It also demanded to know why the government would not allow
ICRC to establish an office in Aceh.

"The ICRC still needs clarification from the Indonesian
government regarding their prohibition to have a permanent office
in Aceh," the statement said.

"The Red Cross finds it illogical not to have a permanent base
in Aceh considering the long distance between Jakarta and the
province and the serious condition that needs continuous contacts
and cooperation between ICRC-PMI (the Indonesian Red Cross) and
the local authorities," it said.

Indonesia's deep economic crisis, which began last July, has
prompted thousands of people to look for illegal work abroad.
Many have headed to Malaysia, just across the Malacca Strait from
North Sumatra.

Malaysia, which has its own economic problems, has cracked
down on illegal immigration in the last few months.

It says those at the UNHCR office and eight other Indonesians
who sought refuge at the U.S. Embassy are economic migrants, not
political refugees.