We've got a problem

We've got a problem

Indonesia's official attitude in the wake of the of the
Norwegian freighter Tampa episode has been very dismissive. In
refusing permission for the ship to offload the Afghan asylum
seekers, Jakarta maintained its conviction that this was an
Australian problem.

The refugees may have set sail from Indonesia, but when their
Indonesian-chartered boat sank and they were rescued by the
passing Norwegian ship on its way to Australia, Indonesia feels
justified in its claim that the problem was taken out of its
hands.

Such a dismissive attitude is consistent with the way Jakarta
has turned a blind eye to the influx of people from West Asia --
particularly Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq -- who use Indonesia
as a transit point to enter Australia illegally. Little, if at
all, has been done to restrict their entry into Indonesia,
whether they possess legitimate visas or not. Since Indonesia is
not their final destination, the government has very little
incentive to prevent them from trying to cross the Indian Ocean
to reach what these refugees consider to be the promised land.

With such a dismissive attitude, last week's episode with the
Tampa "refugee ship" was treated by Jakarta as nothing more than
a diplomatic row with Australia. The planned visit by three
Australian cabinet ministers, starting on Thursday, is seen more
as an attempt to patch up relations in the aftermath of that row.

But the visit of the Australian foreign minister, defense
minister and immigration minister at the same time signifies how
serious Australia considers Indonesia's role in containing the
arrival of illegal immigrants on its soil. Australia argues that
this is not simply about illegal immigrants, which would indeed
restrict the problem to Australia alone, but that this is an
international people smuggling issue.

Put simply, Australia cannot stop the influx of these asylum
seekers without the cooperation of other countries, particularly
Indonesia.

Notwithstanding the way Australian Prime Minister John Howard
handled the Tampa incident -- he turned it into an election issue
by putting the blame largely on Indonesia -- officials in Jakarta
would be well advised to change their dismissive attitude and ask
themselves: Is this really an Australian problem?

For one thing, Indonesia has already, albeit quietly, taken
the brunt of the influx of these West Asians who fail to reach
Australian shores. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
the government has already had to cope with some 1,600 refugees
from West Asia. Presumably, these are people who attempted to
sail to Australia but failed and were then returned to Indonesia.
Their number may be small, but the government is already heavily
burdened by the presence of some 1.3 million refugees or
internally displaced people from the conflicts in East Timor,
Aceh, Maluku, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

Although United Nations agencies are handling some of these
refugees from West Asia, Indonesia still has to provide the
accommodation and other facilities for them. These 1,600 people
are the only ones who have been discovered. Their number is
rising, and will continue rising even faster if Australia
succeeds in rejecting more of them.

Besides their staggering number, there is also the potential
problem, echoed by the United States, of terrorist syndicates
from the Middle East or West Asia infiltrating the influx of
asylum seekers. Western and Indonesian intelligence sources have
warned about the possibility of foreign terrorist organizations
targeting Indonesia.

It is time for Indonesia to recognize that it has a problem,
and a potentially large one at that. The dismissive attitude in
the past has only led to complacency and inaction.

The government should restrict the issuance of tourist visas
to people from West Asia if many of them have abused their entry
to Indonesia simply as a means of entering Australia. Immigration
officers should tighten procedures for visitors from West Asia,
looking out for the possibility of the use of forged passports
and visas. The Indonesian Navy could intensify their patrol of
the most vulnerable coastal areas if some of these West Asian
people illegally enter Indonesia by ship.

Whatever their mode of entry to Indonesia, whether legitimate
or not, Indonesia can only start implementing real preventative
measures, as well as other measures such as containing the threat
of international terrorism, if it recognizes that there is a
problem. So far, we have not even reached that point.