Indonesia drafting law to tackle migrants
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Rita A. Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali
The government will deliver the final draft of the immigration law to the House of Representatives by the middle of this year to enable the country to properly deal with people-smuggling, illegal migrants and related issues.
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the International Conference on Illegal Migrants and Transnational Crimes in Nusa Dua on Wednesday that Indonesian immigration laws currently did not cover people-smuggling or related crimes.
"We are facing an influx of illegal migrants and people- smuggling, yet we do not have adequate legal infrastructure to deal with these issues," said the minister.
The absence of potent immigration laws has caused Indonesia mountains of problems on illegal migrants and human trafficking.
Over the past few years, Indonesia has become a stepping stone for illegal migrants mostly from Iraq, Afghanistan and other Middle East countries who seek better lives in developed nations, such as Australia and New Zealand.
Like most Asian countries, Indonesia has not yet ratified the l951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, making the migrants' entry and status illegal. Therefore, any visiting migrant must be placed in quarantine.
"Indonesia will not likely ratify this UN Convention in the near future because of national interests," Yusril said.
"Due to security and economic concerns, Indonesia, which has yet to emerge from the prolonged crisis, would be unable to live up to international expectation by ratifying the convention."
The UN Convention stipulates that signatory countries cannot reject refugees or international migrants.
"By any means, we are incapable of doing so. It would be too burdensome for our troubled country," Yusril added,
However, Indonesia is hosting thousands of illegal migrants in its quarantine center and the number is likely increase. "Some of the people have been in the quarantine center fore years. For how long should we provide them with shelter?" he queried.
In dealing with Afghan migrants, Indonesia has taken a firm stand.
"We have refused to become a processing country as required by other countries," said the minister. There are an estimated 1,600 illegal migrants, mainly from Iraq and Afghanistan, in Indonesia who are seeking refugee status.
Indonesia is now working closely with Australia as the destination country, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization on Migrants (IOM) in dealing with Afghan and Iraq migrants.
"The countries of origin, transit countries and destination countries should sit down together to seek the best solution to deal with illegal migrants," Yusril said.
Indonesian foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda and Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer met with Afghan justice minister on Thursday to discuss the thousands of Afghan people stranded in Indonesia and Australia.
"The Afghan minister has agreed to comprehensively discuss this issue and will seek ways to return his countrymen to their homeland," Hassan said.
He said both Indonesia and Australia were optimistic that the problem could be solved or at least reduced if all parties were open-minded and cooperative.
Indonesia, Hassan said, had experience in dealing with the resettlement and repatriation of Indochinese refugees in l989.
The l989 Comprehensive Action Plan for Indochinese refugees effectively and successfully resettled 760,000 refugees in third countries and returned 110,000 nonrefugees to their homeland from a temporary shelter in Galang island in Sumatra.