Repatriation of boatpeople on target
Repatriation of boatpeople on target
By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat
JAKARTA (JP): The repatriation of all Vietnamese boatpeople currently held on the Indonesian island of Galang is expected to meet its year-end deadline, despite the fact that over 5,000 boatpeople remain.
Both government and United Nations officials expressed confidence yesterday that the deadline could be kept and said that, at worst, repatriation of all boatpeople would occur shortly after the target date.
"Recently there was another conference and it was agreed that it would be completed, if not this year, then slightly into next year," Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said, referring to a UN conference in Geneva on the return of the boatpeople.
Separately, the representative to Indonesia of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Jean-Noel Wetterwald, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that "we are optimistic we can reduce the number by the target date."
He said that this year alone 1,325 boatpeople had been repatriated, with an average of between 440 and 540 people being sent back to Vietnam each month.
Galang, located just south of Singapore, was established as a temporary shelter for Vietnamese and Cambodian boatpeople in 1975 and has since been home to some 248,000 boatpeople.
Jakarta is now planning to develop the island as part of the Barelang bonded zone area, which includes the islands of Batam, Rempang and Galang. For this reason the government is anxious to expedite the repatriation of the boatpeople from the island.
Earlier deadlines, of December 1994 and August 1995, were moved back because of the large number of boatpeople to be transported and the slow pace of the repatriations.
Wetterwald said there were about 5,300 boatpeople living on Galang, of which only 60 had been "screened-in" to receive refugee status. These 60, alone, would be resettled in industrialized countries, he said.
The boatpeople on Galang have been scrutinized to determine whether they left their country in search of political sanctuary, and therefore qualify as refugees, or whether they are merely economic exiles.
Those who are "screened-in" are resettled in a third country, such as Canada or the United States, while those "screened-out' must return to Vietnam.
"Clearly we shall settle the matter so that all those who do not receive refugee status can be returned to Vietnam," Alatas said.
In April 1994, a group of "screened-out" boatpeople rioted and several went on hunger strikes or attempted suicide to protest their impending repatriation. Dozens had to be hospitalized and at least one person died. There have been unconfirmed reports of several other deaths.
The protests coincided with the visit of Vietnamese President Le Duc Anh to Jakarta. At the time there were still close to 9,000 boatpeople on Galang, almost all of them Vietnamese.
Voluntary
Although Jakarta is clearly anxious to begin development of the island, Alatas has repeatedly said that the government would not resort to forced repatriation.
"We will not use force and it looks like it is already working, albeit slowly," Alatas said, citing the principle of voluntary and orderly repatriation
Wetterwald confirmed that this year the situation had been calm and that "the Indonesian authorities are under control."
When asked if the rioting and forced repatriations that have taken place in other camps had also occurred on Galang, Wetterwald replied: "Not at all, we are unlike Hong Kong."
Alatas said that the lapsing of a general repatriation agreement with Vietnam provided a further impetus for meeting the year-end repatriation deadline.
A Comprehensive Plan of Action was formed in 1989 to help expedite the return of the boatpeople. During his visit here, Le Duc Anh gave support to the arrangement by guaranteeing that the boatpeople would be free from persecution upon their return.