Immigration office washes hands of illegal immigrants

JAKARTA (JP): The immigration office washed its hands on Friday over the entry of illegal immigrants to Indonesia, saying that most of them entered the country without passing official immigration checkpoints.

"The immigration office cannot control their entry as they came to Indonesia by boat and they did not carry legal documents like passports and visas," spokesman for the directorate general of immigration Ade E. Dahlan told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He said the illegal immigrants, mostly from the Middle East, came to Indonesia by boat through coastal routes that were not monitored by the Indonesian water security authorities.

Regional Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Jakarta Raymond Hall said there were some 500 people who have been given status as refugees, while 1,500 others were still seeking refugee status.

Hall said the number of illegal immigrants in Indonesia could be much more than that figure. "I think the number could be much higher, but we do not know exactly," Hall told the Post.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said on Thursday that many illegal immigrants entered Indonesia using fake passports and visas.

According to him, after successfully entering Indonesian territory, they threw away their fake documents and joined other illegal immigrants who were already in the country.

Dahlan admitted that there were illegal immigrants who entered Indonesia through official Indonesian entrance gates.

"But we have no information about the figures. What we know is that the foreigners arrested by the police and other security officers had no documents. We do not know whether they had thrown the documents away," he said.

Dahlan further said that since illegal immigrants had become an international issue, the problem was now being handled by the office of the coordinating minister for political affairs and security.

According to Hall, the authorities in Indonesia might find it hard to prevent the entry of illegal immigrants as the country has a very long unguarded coast.

However, he praised the government for its high sense of tolerance toward refugees, although it had not ratified the convention and protocol on refugees.

Commenting on the fate of 438 asylum seekers, mostly Afghans, on board the Norwegian freighter Tampa near Australia's Christmas Island, Hall said that it was unlikely the freighter would return to Indonesian territory.

"Because the ultimate destination of the migrants is Australia," he said.

AFP reported that intense negotiations were under way on Friday to resolve the plight of the refugees who were stranded at sea as Australia ignored global outrage and steadfastly refused to take them in.

Canberra has come under increasing pressure to allow the ship to land on the island as a Norwegian envoy visited the refugees and reported that food and water supplies were running low.

UN Deputy High Commissioner Soren Jessen-Petersen has asked New Zealand and Norway to take in the refugees, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said in Geneva.

"The Tampa is now close to Christmas Island, the people have been on board far too long, and that island is the most logical place for them to go to for the time being."

That view was echoed by Norway's ambassador to Australia, Ove Thorsheim, who spent more than five hours aboard the Tampa on Friday and said Christmas Island was "the most viable option."

Jessen-Petersen presented the plan to disembark the asylum seekers temporarily on Christmas Island at an informal meeting of Australian, Norwegian and Indonesian representatives at the UNHCR headquarters in Geneva.

The fledgling nation of East Timor and New Zealand indicated they would both consider offering a safe haven to the refugees. But Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer ruled out sending the refugees to East Timor, which is still trying to rebuild, following mayhem after an independence ballot.

Norway said it would consider accepting some of the refugees but insisted Australia first had a duty to acknowledge its primary responsibility for the asylum seekers.

Though urgent talks were continuing between officials in Jakarta and Canberra, Howard has not spoken yet with Indonesia's new President, Megawati Sukarnoputri. "Nobody should assume this is going to be resolved overnight. These things never are," Howard said, as quoted by AP. (02)