Sri Lankan stranded in Indonesia

“It’s the job of the immigration office. How can we verify their status if we cannot verify who they are through the immigration authorities ?”
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By Terry Lacey

(October 19, Jakarta, Sri Lanka Guardian) On October 10th the Indonesian navy took in tow a dilapidated boat carrying 255 Sri Lankans, including women and children, found drifting in Indonesian territorial waters as reported in The Jakarta Post (19.10.09). However the Jakarta Globe reported the boat was intercepted in the Sunda Strait after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono received a tip-off from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

They claimed to be on their way to Australia. Their boat is now in the port of Merak on the northwestern tip of Java on the ferry route across the Sunda Strait to Sumatra. It is not yet clear if they will be treated as illegal migrants, refugees or asylum seekers. (Jakarta Post 19.10.09).

They apparently have been on hunger strike but agreed to have their boat towed into port. Three (two adults and one child) have been treated in hospital but have returned to the boat. The women and children reportedly have access to the dockside to walk or take food. But their fate hangs in the balance.

Immigration Officer Marolan J Baringbing said “ We could have stormed the boat and forced the migrants to leave if the higher authorities had declared them illegal visitors”. As illegal migrants they could be detained and repatriated.

But the same officer explained “ If they are refugees or asylum seekers, we cannot send them back home as we fear their home country may put them in harm´s way”.

The Indonesian immigration authorities say the Indonesian Foreign Ministry must establish their status, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah says the immigration ministry must first arrange verification of their identities and status.

“It’s the job of the immigration office. How can we verify their status if we cannot verify who they are through the immigration authorities ?”

The authorities have prepared a temporary shelter for them if they agree to leave the boat, but as of Sunday they refused to do so, despite intensive negotiations between the International Organization for Migration (IOM), immigration officials and the Sri Lankan boat people.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was reported as saying that the boat people should be processed through normal channels by UN officials in Indonesia, although they were refusing to leave the boat, with many of the men on hunger strike. (Jakarta Globe 17.10.09).

It is reported that Indonesian people traffickers are active in a chain of illegal trafficking activities from Sri Lanka, aiming for Christmas Island in Australian territorial waters. Other boats are reported to have carried illegally trafficked people from as far away as Afghanistan.

Harry Purwanto the immigration chief in Banten was reported as saying that the boat people had been divided between those who wanted to accept temporary accommodation and go through normal processing and those who wanted a guarantee of refugee status from UNHCR before leaving the vessel. (Jakarta Globe 17.10.09).

It was also reported that Australia was under pressure because 1,650 boat people and asylum seeks had already arrived in Australia this year.

In addition as the Indonesian economy takes off, having avoided the global recession, it is reported that Indonesia already in the G20, is expected to be among the top eight economies in the world by 2040, and that Indonesian average income is rapidly rising and will soon surpass $6000 per head in terms of Gross Domestic Product.

In other worlds Indonesia itself will soon become the target the target of economic migrants, although right now it is the front line of defense for an Australia which feels beleagured by these pressures. Hence the reports of generous Australian funding to help Indonesia to police its territorial waters, as reported in the Jakarta Post.

Meanwhile both the Australian and Indonesian governments might like to know if it is true that the Sri Lankan boat people would come into harms way if they were repatriated to Sri Lanka, as the Sri Lankan boat people allege, or is the war well and truly over, and is there national reconciliation and adequate international supervision of the aftermath by the UN and NGOs ? Why are Sri Lankans taking such heavy risks to leave their own country ?

Terry Lacey is a development economist who writes from Jakarta on modernization in the Muslim world, investment and trade relations with the EU and Islamic banking.

-Sri Lanka Guardian