Indonesia raps Australia over boat people treatment
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.