Asylum Seekers on their way to Australia in Indonesia

Indonesia has a strategic geographic location which makes it a desirable place of transit for Asylum seekers trying to reach Australia.

There are those who go straight to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Central Jakarta, and file a request to be recognized as an asylum seeker or refugee. Thousands of asylum seekers looking to be refugees are sheltering in Indonesia; the years of waiting for placement to a third country is a tortuous affair. With only their words to go by and scant paperwork to back them up, most of these people are trying to find their way out of the suffering they experienced in home countries wracked by violence and oppression.

An ethnic Arab, Amir Mazraeh 54 years old (not his real name) fled from Iran with his family to escape what he says is the oppression and discriminatory treatment by the government there.

Amir Says “We’ve been waiting for years, and it’s been stressful because we can’t do anything besides think about our families and friends that we’ve left behind,”

Amir’s story is similar to that of hundreds of others who in recent years have flooded into Indonesia from Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East as they seek to make their way, legally or otherwise, to Australia.

The Indonesian immigration office says that as of December last year, there were 3,980 illegal immigrants in the country (about 4,000, according to the UNHCR), of whom 3,011 were classified as asylum seekers and 969 refugees. Less than half, or 1,284, are housed at the government’s immigration detention centers in 13 cities across the country.

As of this month, there are at least 567 immigrants living in 42 houses, apartments, villas and hotels in Cisarua, according to the Bogor Immigration Office. In June last year, that figure was just 326, with most of the immigrants coming from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan.

For those like Amir and fellow Iranian Yusuf (not his real name) and their families, who have been in Puncak since 2010, the wait has been anything but pleasant. Amir makes it clear what he wants after living in limbo here for the past year and a half: “I just can’t wait to leave.”

While some of the asylum seekers are luck to be supported by the government and are placed in communities until their status for refugee is determined. Other have to wait this long period in detention centres in Indonesia.

The conditions in Indonesian detention centres are not good, people are thrown together in small are without good health services. Recently an afghan asylum seeker was beaten to death at a detention centre in Kalimantan, Indonesia.

The 28-year-old Afghan man was among a group of five which escaped from the Pontianak detention centre. The chief detective in Pontianak, Puji Prayitno, says the men were recaptured and were healthy when they were returned to the centre. One of them, however, died the the next day and Mr Puji says the cause of death was trauma caused by a blunt object. Asylum seekers say a guard beat one of the would-be escapees and killed him. The 10 suspects, from a staff of 30, were in police custody. As of yesterday afternoon, charges had not been laid.

Commission spokesman Andrej Mahecic said "UNHCR is seriously troubled by the unclear turn of events that followed,”

With the tide of asylum seekers continuing to grow, the government is establishing a special office within the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs to deal with the issues of illegal immigration and people smuggling.

The ministry hosted a high-level meeting at the end of January, attended by officials from the IOM, UNHCR, the Foreign Ministry, the Transportation Ministry, the military, the police and intelligence agencies.

The new office, which will help in monitoring, synchronizing and coordinating policy applications to prevent people smuggling and handle asylum seekers, will have its own intelligence unit.

The government has acknowledged the difficulty of the task ahead. “People smuggling and illegal migrants are complex issues,” says Maryoto, from the immigration directorate. “It’s not just about immigration. It’s also about human rights, international relations and national defense.”

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 obligation to regulate standards on handling refugees. Thus the bad condition for refugees continues and there is no hop of any change in the future for asylum seekers.