Illegal Immigrants from Sri Lanka Stranded in Indonesia

Courtesy:Kompas.com

(May 28, Jakarta, Sri Lanka Guardian) Twenty-six illegal immigrants from Sri Lanka found stranded in Indonesian waters were until Thursday still in Cilacap, Central Java.

"They cannot yet be evacuated to Jakarta because the accommodations there are already filled beyond capacity. Perhaps in two or three days’ time, they can be moved to an immigration detention center in Jakarta," head of the immigration office in Cilacap, Hasan Basri, said here on Thursday.

He said the illegal immigrants were still very tired and some of them had even fallen ill and therefore needed treatment. Therefore, he said, they were now accommodated at Hotel Sanjaya located not far from the immigration office.

He said the decision was taken also because the immigration office in Cilacap did not have an immigration detention center. Asked about the results of the immigrants’s questioning, Hasan Basri said none of them had valid travel documents and they wished to go to Chirstmas Island in Australia.

"They wish to seek jobs there because their country is facing a lot of problems. So they want to seek asylum as well as jobs. They have no political motives," he said.

He said the immigrants ran out of supplies and they later asked for help from fishermen from Cilacap who crossed their path in the Indian Ocean. As has been reported the Sri Lankan immigrants arrived aboard a motorized boat at Tanjung Intan port in Cilacap on Wednesday (May 26) drawn by KM Harapan Maju, a longline-typed fisherman boat with 11 crew on board led by skipper Maniso.

Upon arrival in Cilacap they however refused to be evacuated by immigration officials without the presence of UNHCR or IOM officials. They said they would remain on the boat until the UNHCR or IOM officials arrived there. The immigration office has called the UNHCR office in Jakarta asking them to help persuade them. After one of the immigrants talked with an UNHCR official by phone they finally agreed to be evacuated to the hotel.

"An IOM not UNHCR official is accompanying them. The IOM official arrived this morning," Hasan Basri said.