UNHCR, IOM pledge to help RI deal with illegal migrants
UNHCR, IOM pledge to help RI deal with illegal migrants
Rita A.Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali
With the number of illegal immigrants living in Indonesia
falling drastically, international refugee and migration
organizations would continue to help the country dealing with
migrants and refugees.
Speaking at a people smuggling conference here on Wednesday,
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers said
his organization, the UNHCR, together with International
Organization of Migration (IOM) had helped return migrants and
refugees to their home countries.
UNHCR and IOM had been working on repatriation of East Timor
refugees residing in West Timor, illegal migrants from several
Middle-Eastern countries including Iraq and Afghanistan who were
in Indonesia and hoping to be resettled in Australia or another
developed Western country.
"UNHCR has been a successful partner of Indonesia and
Australia together with IOM to address mixed flows of people of
which only a limited number are really refugees," Lubbers said at
the end of the Bali regional ministerial conference on people
smuggling, trafficking in persons and related translational
crime.
Indonesian foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda stated that with
the help of the two UN agencies, Indonesia had successfully
reduced the number of asylum-seekers from 3,872 people in l999 to
less than 500 last year.
"The majority of these migrants, especially those coming from
Afghanistan, were voluntarily returning home as the situation in
that country is now improving substantially," Hassan said.
Lubbers explained that last year, UNHCR sent home around 1.5
million Afghans fleeing to several countries including Indonesia
and Australia.
"As the situation improves in Iraq, again another example is
our role preparing to facilitate the return of some 500,000
persons, over half of the Iraqis who are today living in refugee-
like situations," Lubbers said.
UNHCR is currently trying to help out about 12 million
refugees and 7 million displaced people, asylum-seekers and
stateless people worldwide.
In his evaluation of the current condition of refugees and
illegal migrants around the world, Lubbers made several important
notes.
People smugglers, traffickers and organized networks involved
in transnational crime syndicates profit from the lack of
solutions for victims of violence and discrimination.
"To be effective in fighting crime, increasing border control
and attacking criminal networks will not suffice. We have been
engaged in this for many years, but the problem is still with us.
One needs to reduce 'the lifeline' of crime.
"We must therefore not only live up to the spirit of the 1951
Convention, but also engage in comprehensive solutions...
solutions for refugees and burden sharing is not only a
humanitarian and political challenge. It is also about fighting
crime," Lubbers added.
The l951 Convention deals with the proper treatment of
refugees and migrants.
Meanwhile, Dennis Nihill, IOM's Asia-Pacific regional
representative, disclosed that from l995 to l999, over two
million Asian migrant workers left their countries every year.
Major countries of origin include the Philippines, India,
Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Annual outflow of migrant workers had more than tripled in the
past decade to almost 900,000 people in 2001.
"The number of documented Indonesian workers in Malaysia, the
number one destination for Indonesian migrants, indicates over a
six-fold increase to almost 800,000 in the decade from l990,"
Nihill said.
While being the major region of origin for migrants, Asia is
also the host region for millions of migrants, mostly from West
Asia and South Central Asia.