Asylum seekers homeless in Indonesia
In 2018, immigration detention centres in Indonesia released thousands of refugees and asylum seekers into the community when Australia reduced funding for the International Organisation for Migration. Hundreds ended up living on the streets outside Jakarta’s immigration detention centre.
While asylum seekers in West Jakarta are clamouring to get into detention, in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, detainees are desperate for their release.
Since 2001, Australia has effectively financed the detention of asylum seekers in Indonesia by providing some $388 million to IMO Indonesia for duties, including the maintenance of detention centres and the provision of care to detainees. But Mark Getchell, IOM Indonesia’s outgoing chief of mission, says the decision to cut funding makes sense in the broader context of Australia’s shifting refugee strategy.
”If I can read the rationale of the Australian government: Well, if that’s turning into a pull factor, let’s deal with that.”
Published in The Saturday Paper.
Ruhulla and Amir Abdulfazl are spending their childhood up in an refugee shelter in Makassar, Indonesia. Photo: Nicole Curby
Refugees and asylum seekers demonstrate in front of the UNHCR office in Makassar, Indonesia. (Photo: Nicole Curby)