Police told to remove Iraqi refugees from E. Nusa Tenggara

Police told to remove Iraqi refugees from E. Nusa Tenggara

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang

East Nusa Tenggara Deputy Governor Johanis Pake Pani has asked
the provincial police to remove Iraqi refugees from the province
because they are the responsibility of the central government and
the International Migration Organization (IOM).

"I am asking the police to coordinate with IOM to deport the
refugees to other provinces that are ready to accommodate them,"
he said when receiving 37 delegates representing more than 1,700
Iraqi refugees in his office here on Tuesday.

Achmed Al Hamid, spokesman for the refugees, said they wanted
to be moved to Java where their fellow refugees had received
better service from IOM.

He said they were running short of medicine and housing.

Meanwhile, Adj. Sr. Comr. Masirman of the command and control
unit at the Provincial Police Headquarters said that there were
no longer any administrations in Java willing to receive illegal
foreign immigrants.

"We will try to move the refugees to West Nusa Tenggara
because the people in the province have expressed their readiness
to receive the Iraqi refugees," he said.

According to data from the social affairs office in the city,
the 1,700 Iraqi asylum seekers are being accommodated in a Kupang
police mess and hotels in Kupang and East Flores.