Jakarta – The handling of foreign refugees that enter Indonesia, which are often referred to as illegal immigrants, is still of concern. This is because Indonesia has still not ratified the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol. Indonesia also does not have a legal umbrella to regulate standards on handling refugees.

“The planned ratification of the 1951 UN Convention was actually included in the 2004-2009 National Human Rights National Action Plan. The government however has been reluctant to ratify it because it still sees the handling of refugees from other countries, as [defined] in the stipulations of the convention as a burden”, said Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) Program Manager Ali Akbar Tanjung in Jakarta on Tuesday June 15.

The government’s handling of refugees up until now, according to Tanjung, has tended to be simply accommodating them in detention centres or deporting them back to their country of origin. It is as if the government does not want to know whether in their country of origin, which have usually been hit by conflict, the refugees will later be tortured or not.

Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) County Director Adrianus Suyadi SJ, speaking at an event titled Refugee Film Week to commemorate World Refugee Day on Monday evening, said that the conditions faced by refugees accommodated in detention centres needs serious attention and the public must monitor this.

Based on the information available, the conditions for refugees in detention centers is inadequate from the perspective of human rights. On one occasion, a refugee even sent a letter to the JRS asking them to bring them poison so that they could end their prolonged suffering in the detention centre.

“Ideally the government should ratify the 1951 UN Convention and 1967 Protocol,” said Suyadi. (why)

[Translated by James Balowski.]