The refugees stated their wish to resettle in Australia.
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Tamil people is fleeing their home with military escort in Sri Lanka. (AP Photo/Sri Lankan Army,HO) |
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VIVAnews – The Indonesian government hopes that the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who are now being sheltered in the Tanjung Pinang detention center, Riau Islands Province, will be moved out of the Indonesian territory to a third country in the next four weeks. If the immigrants are considered not eligible for an asylum seeker status from the United Nation, they would be deported to their home country.
“We do not wish our national area to become a shelter for asylum seekers. We hope the refugees find new settlement,” said the spokesperson of Foreign Affairs Department Teuku Faizasyah in Jakarta on Friday, Nov. 20.
According to Faizasyah, the high commission from UNHCR is identifying the status of the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers.
The issue is being discussed by the home country (Sri Lanka), the transit country (Indonesia), and the destination country (Australia). The refugees stated their wish to resettle in Australia, but the Australian government had also stated their objection.
Indonesian government is trying to find a different country for these asylum seekers. However, Faizasyah said that it has become the main difficulty now. The effort to seek a third country for the refugees has been conveyed in several occasions in international forums.
During the identification process by the UNHCR, the government placed the immigrants in the immigration detention center in Tanjung Pinang. “The placement of the refugees from the Oceanic Viking boat was based on humanity reason,” said Faizasyah.
Fifty-six Sri Lankan asylum seekers who sailed using the Australian-flagged Oceanic Viking were cast ashore on Tanjung Pinang Islands in last October after they had been stranded for a month on the sea. The Tanjung Pinang immigration detention center houses 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers.
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Translated by: Ariyantri E. Tarman
• VIVAnews
