Not since the Vietnam civil war of the 1970s
has a refugee crisis of the current magnitude hit the Asean region.
Since May
10, Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees have been stranded in the province of
Aceh.
The
group, consisting of men, women and children, are currently spread across the
northern and eastern coasts of Aceh.
At least
6,000 or more people are currently adrift somewhere in the open seas under
alarming humanitarian conditions, trying for months to reach land.
The three
governments in the region — including Indonesia — have decided to stop them at
sea in order to prevent them from entering their territories.
Thankfully,
the Indonesian government has refrained from turning away those who have made
it to the shore.
The UNHCR
has stated that unless the problems at the country of origin are solved, which
realistically will take considerable time, the current influx is only the
beginning.
Legal
experts have advised each government to reject the refugees should the
situation deteriorate.
The best
that international bodies like the UN can do is to make appeals, which are
certainly non-binding as the three nations are non-signatories to the 1951
Refugee Covenant and Protocol (RCP).
Specific
to Indonesia, arguments have been made that the country is experienced at
welcoming refugees from neighboring countries.
In 1979,
Indonesia set aside some of its islands, Galang, Kuku and Buton as transition
camps for 125,000 Indochinese refugees before their repatriation back to their
home countries or resettlement in a third country.
Some even
suggested that a similar arrangement be made for the current refugee crisis.
Setting
up island-camps such as these is not an act of compassion. It is an act of
expediency. Isolating the refugees from other communities in Indonesia pushed
them out of sight and mind of the public, thus reducing the sense of urgency to
resolve the root of the problem.
It took
10 years for the first-asylum countries to agree on the Comprehensive Plan of
Action (CPA) in June 1989, which set up rigid screening procedures to determine
refugee status.
It took
another seven years of implementation before the CPA ended. Yet even when the
last island-camp was closed in 1996 there were still some refugees remaining on
Galang Island in Riau Islands province.
An entire
generation of people were literally born and raised on that island.
The
island-camp experiences have taught us that it is not easy to become a
temporary host country, mainly because we now understand how slow and costly
the process of relocation to other countries is.
Isolated
refugee camps — no matter how well-accommodated — are still prisons. The only
reason to set up these ghettos is to justify the public fear-mongering against
refugees (i.e. they are out to take away jobs; they cost taxpayer’s money; they
encroach on sovereignty).
Even the
portrayals of refugees who 10 years ago were still considered victims have
begun to be painted with loaded and distancing legalistic words such as migran
ilegal (illegal migrants) and pendatang gelap (unlawful migrants), rather than
pengungsi (refugees) or pencari suaka (asylum seekers).
These
unfortunate souls are described as a threat by people in positions of power
because it is politically beneficial to look tough on aliens.
When it
comes to people who seek safety to save their own lives, there is still
compassion within us but it does not exist in the halls of power, bureaucracy
or courts of law.
Witness
how the fishermen of Aceh searched for and rescued the recent refugees, how
local villagers provided food, clothing and shelter for the refugees, how local
volunteers appeared seemingly out of nowhere to take care of them until the
authorities, the UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migrants arrived.
Perhaps
it is fate that that these refugees ended up on a land whose people have
experienced the same hardships caused by armed conflict, including
discrimination and alienation, which forced many of them to become refugees
themselves.
Perhaps
it is fate that the Acehnese share the same cultural and religious
characteristics as the refugees, which has helped overcome initial prejudices
and language divisions.
Perhaps
it is also fate that because Aceh now has special autonomy status the fishermen
have enough confidence to defy initial warnings from some officials not to
rescue the boats as it would violate border laws.
Or
perhaps it is simply because these Acehnese — all of them ordinary men and
women — have far better compassion than those who are meant to lead us in these
matters.
If
another temporary transition refugee camp is to be set up in Indonesia, then
another island prison is not the solution. The refugees are not criminals or
animals.
They have
every right to join the larger community. Inevitably, there will be occasional friction,
or cases of abuse by both refugees and hosts.
However,
we must have faith that the vast majority of Indonesian communities, be they in
Aceh or elsewhere, will be able to embrace and accept these refugees either
temporarily or permanently.
Where
laws and regulations have failed in addressing humanitarian problems, then it
is time for those in power to start believing in the capacity of their own
people for compassion and acceptance of others.
Iwan
Dzulvan Amir
The writer is a researcher who has studied Aceh
for over two decades and currently resides in Jakarta.
The
Jakarta Post
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
in Singapore since 1994.
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