Indonesia calls on Australia to lift refugee intake

THE Indonesian government is growing impatient with the 10,000 or more asylum seekers using its country as a waiting room, and wants Australia to accept more of them to reduce the numbers.

The deputy head of the Human Trafficking, Refugees and Asylum Seekers desk, Johnny Hutauruk, told the Herald this week that the large number of asylum seekers, and Tony Abbott’s pledge to send them back to Indonesia, threatened his country’s sovereignty.

Mr Hutauruk’s office, part of Indonesia’s Co-ordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, was created in March in response to what is viewed as a growing domestic problem in a country that struggles to feed and house its own citizens.

The refugee influx, and Australia’s reluctance to accept them, has not been a big political issue in Indonesia until now. But Mr Hutauruk’s comments suggest it may soon become an issue and one that could damage relations with Australia.

Mr Hutauruk said 5347 registered refugees lived in Indonesia, and perhaps double that number are unregistered. He expected more to arrive from Malaysia.

”There are 100,000 people in Malaysia who are prepared to go to Australia, and of course they’ll go through Indonesia,” he said.

Indonesia’s views on the issue are beginning to strongly echo the ”border protection” debate in Australia.

”On the one hand we have to guard our sovereignty – we don’t want too many of these people here – but we also must respect their human rights,” Mr Hutauruk said. Most of the refugees were living in villages and towns in West Java, where the local residents were growing impatient.

”There are some refugees in Puncak [in West Java] and you see cultural conflicts between refugees and locals … They bring with them their habits and their culture, which is perhaps not in tune with local culture and traditions.”

Many of the refugees in Indonesia are Shiite muslims from Afghanistan and Iran, and Indonesia is a predominantly Sunni country, but Mr Hutauruk denied the conflicts were over religion.

”Some are involved in criminal cases such as drugs and crime … sometimes they marry with locals but they’re not legal marriages,” Mr Hutauruk said.

”People in west Java speak very softly, politely. These people have a different culture and habits. They are temperamental … but we can understand that they are upset and frustrated – they have been here so long without certainty of being settled in a third country.”

It was up to Australia to ease Indonesia’s burden by ”opening your doors as wide as possible”, he said.

”The most important solution is to reduce the number here because they all want to go to Australia. The solution is to open the doors.”

That view reinforces Indonesia’s strong and often stated aversion to Tony Abbott’s plan to push back boats.

”The situation would be more complicated [under Mr Abbott’s policy],” Mr Hutauruk said, ”because, if there are more people with migration problems in Indonesia, it will have a big impact on social and community issues and it also will disturb our national sovereignty.”

Asked whether harsher policies in Australia would reduce the numbers in Indonesia by discouraging people from coming in the first place, Mr Hutauruk conceded, ”it’s possible”. However, Australia would need to explain that to countries from the source, in the Middle East, all the way to Indonesia, he said.

His organisation was also seeking help from agencies such as the Indonesian navy to increase patrols to the country’s north to intercept more boats coming from Malaysia, he said.

Mr Hutauruk said his job was to co-ordinate the response from Indonesia’s police, navy and intelligence agencies, as well as the departments of immigration, fisheries, local government and foreign affairs.

He was planning to call a trilateral meeting between officials from Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia in October or November.

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