North Sumatra Follows West Sumatra in Achieving Zero Tent Refugees Target Ahead of Eid

All survivors of flooding and landslides in North Sumatra (Sumut) have now left evacuation tents. The victims have been relocated to more appropriate housing, whether temporary housing (huntara) or permanent housing (huntap) built by the government in partnership with several non-governmental organisations.

This achievement is the result of the work of the Acceleration Task Force for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (PRR) of Post-Disaster Sumatra, which succeeded in moving all refugees from tents in the North Sumatra region.

According to the daily report of the PRR Task Force as of 14 March, the number of refugees still in tents also experienced a significant overall decline.

Whereas previously 1,314 families (KK) were recorded still living in evacuation tents, this number has now been reduced to 812 KK, a decrease of 502 families.

With this achievement, all refugees still in tents are now only located in disaster-affected areas in Aceh. Meanwhile, refugees in North Sumatra have been fully relocated to more appropriate housing.

This success followed a similar achievement in West Sumatra (Sumbar), which had previously succeeded in relocating all refugees from tents to more permanent housing.

The relocation of refugees in the two provinces has been facilitated by the acceleration of temporary housing construction in disaster-affected areas. To date, the number of temporary housing units successfully built continues to increase.

The breakdown shows that out of a total plan for 19,295 temporary housing units across three affected provinces, 15,595 units have so far been completed, or approximately 80 per cent of the overall target.

Meanwhile in West Sumatra, temporary housing construction has even reached 100 per cent, in North Sumatra it has reached 95 per cent, and in Aceh approximately 77 per cent.

Whilst increasing temporary housing construction, the PRR Task Force is also progressively completing permanent housing development. According to data from the Post-Disaster Sumatra Task Force as of 14 March, 110 permanent housing units have been completed out of 36,669 that will be built. Meanwhile, 1,359 other units are under construction.

In addition to temporary housing construction, the government’s strategy for reducing the number of refugees has also been accompanied by the provision of Housing Waiting Funds (DTH) for disaster survivors who chose not to live in temporary housing.

To date, all DTH recipient accounts have received fund transfers, with a disbursement rate reaching 100 per cent for 13,728 recipients across the three provinces.

Previously, the Head of the Acceleration Task Force for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (PRR) of Post-Disaster Sumatra, Muhammad Tito Karnavian, affirmed his commitment to reducing the number of Sumatra disaster refugees by relocating them to more appropriate housing.

Tito ensured that the government will not allow refugees to remain in tents for too long. Therefore, he instructed cross-sector coordination to accelerate the resolution of housing issues for affected communities.

“So if they are still in tents, this is already the third month, the third month after the end of November, it is not fitting if they are still in tents,” said Tito.

This was expressed by Tito during a Ministerial-Level Coordination Meeting (Rakor) regarding the Discussion of Accelerating the Handling of Post-Disaster Sumatra Refugees, held at the Office of the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) in Jakarta on Thursday, 5 March.