Turkish boat people under quarantine in Jakarta

Turkish boat people under quarantine in Jakarta

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post , Jakarta

Fourteen stranded boat people are being placed under quarantine
in Jakarta, where immigration and police officers will question
them to decide their fate, officials said on Tuesday.

Ade E. Dachlan, spokesman for the immigration office at the
Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, said the Turkish Kurds had
been flown from Maluku province to Jakarta on Tuesday aboard a
chartered flight.

They arrived in the capital city late on Tuesday and were
immediately taken to the immigration detention center in
Cengkareng, West Jakarta, said Tumpal Hutapea, head of the
detention center.

"They are being dealt with by the International Office for
Migration (IOM) in Jakarta. We shall be working along with the
IOM on their repatriation," he told AFP.

Ade said Indonesian officials would also coordinate with the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in
interrogating the boat people upon their arrival here to
determine whether they were asylum-seekers or not.

"We have not yet decided what to do until we know their
status," he said when asked whether they would be deported.

National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar had earlier said the
boat people would expelled when they arrived in Indonesia.

The Jakarta offices of IOM and UNHCR usually deal with cases
of boat people in Indonesia.

The Turkish Kurds, aboard the Minasa Bone fishing boat, were
towed by the Australian navy last week out to Indonesian waters
four days after it reached Melville Island off the northern
Australian coast.

The boat people, who sought asylum in Australia, later beached
on Nov. 9 in Saumlaki town, Yamdena island, in the southeastern
part of Maluku. They were then taken into custody by local
police.

Local police officers said the Turkish immigrants were in poor
health after sailing aboard the small boat, which was in poor
condition.

Australia has taken a hard line against people-smuggling after
finding organized gangs were using neighboring Indonesia as a
stepping stone for Middle Eastern and Afghan asylum-seekers
trying to resettle in Australia.

The controversial decision by Australia to send the boatload
of asylum-seekers back to Indonesia is a disappointing breach of
its obligations under international law, the UNHCR said on
Tuesday.

"We are very concerned at the way that Australia handled the
case, effectively barring (the 14) from seeking asylum," UNHCR
spokesman Kris Kanowski was quoted by AFP as saying.

"This denial of access represents a breach of Australia's
obligations under international law and undermines the system of
asylum protection," he told a regular news conference in Geneva.

Unlike Indonesia, Australia was a signatory to the 1951
refugee convention, the foundation of international law for the
protection of refugees, which meant it was obliged to hear
requests for asylum and to resist sending anyone seeking help
onward to a dangerous location, the agency explained.

The UNHCR planned to send an "official communication" to the
Australian foreign ministry later in the day outlining its
concerns and frustrations, as the agency had been led to believe
Australia would listen to an application for asylum from the boat
people, said Kanowski.