Indonesia raps Australia over boat people treatment
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government accused Australia on Friday of being inconsistent it its treatment of refugees following its decision to expel Turkish Kurd boat people earlier this week.
The ministry of foreign affairs spokesman Marty Natalegawa said that as a signatory of the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees, Australia was obliged to accommodate asylum seekers.
"Their decision (to expel Turkish Kurds) can be described as inconsistent with the spirit of the Geneva Convention on refugees," Marty said during a press conference on Friday.
However, he was quick to add that the decision to send the refugees back to Indonesia was Australia's domestic decision.
"As for Indonesia, we will deal with it in our own way," Marty said.
Indonesia is not a signatory of the 1951 UN convention on refugees.
As many as 14 Turkish Kurds were made to sail back to Indonesian waters after being refused entry to Australia. Australian navy boarded their boat, which was manned by two Indonesian crew, after they arrived at Melville Island on Nov. 4.
The asylum-seekers landed on Yamdena island in Maluku and transported to Jakarta on Tuesday. They are currently being detained at the immigration office's quarantine facility.
The immigration office said that it had not yet decided the fate of the boat people, pending talks with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Office for Migration (IOM).
The boat people have applied for refugee status with the UNHCR office in Jakarta.
"They might be deported or sent to a third country. It depends on the agreement with UNHCR and IOM," said Ade E. Dachlan, the immigration office's spokesman.
Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said earlier that the government intended to deport the boat people, complaining that Indonesia did not have the capability to accommodate them here.
UNHCR has also conveyed its protest to Australia, accusing the neighboring country of neglecting its international obligations to help refugees by turning the 14 men away.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, however, defended his government's decision on Friday against allegations he deliberately lied when he said the 14 Turkish asylum-seekers expelled from its waters had not claimed asylum.
The Australian government took 4,000 of its outlying islets off the list of areas where people can claim asylum, including the one where the Kurdish men landed, from its migration zone after their arrival last week to prevent them from applying for asylum, a move that was criticized by the United Nations.