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.