UNHCR | Refworld | Indonesia-Australia: "Significant" increase in illegal migration
JAKARTA, 12 June 2009 (IRIN) - Indonesia is experiencing a fresh influx of asylum seekers using the country as a transit point to Australia.
Conflict and economic hardship are driving the trend, officials say.
Many from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Iraq seek better lives elsewhere, with hundreds transiting through the island nation and embarking on perilous journeys in creaky boats to Australia, officials confirm.
On 28 May, nine people were killed and 11 went missing after a boat carrying 36 Australia-bound undocumented migrants from Afghanistan sank off Indonesia's Sumatra Island.
On 2 June, police on the eastern island of Sumba arrested four suspected people-smugglers trying to send 59 Afghan and Pakistani migrants to Australia.
Between April and May alone, Indonesian police detained 147 undocumented migrants, mostly from war-torn Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, Indonesia's Directorate-General of Immigration (DGI) reported.
"There's definitely an increase compared to the previous months," said Muchdor, the director for enforcement at the DGI.
About 800 migrants were intercepted between September 2008 and April 2009 while fewer than 400 were caught in the previous period, he said.
National police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said there had been a "significant" increase in illegal arrivals this year, but did not give figures.
At a regional conference on people smuggling in Indonesia on 14 April, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith warned that the global financial crisis might force more people to seek better lives, leading to more people smuggling and trafficking.
Porous borders
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), given Indonesia's porous borders and lack of resources and coordination among agencies, many illegal arrivals go undetected.
More than 800 asylum seekers are being held in detention centres across Indonesia pending examination by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on their refugee status, said immigration spokesman, Maroloan Barimbing.
"Their main motive is that they don't feel safe in their countries and they have to escape to survive," Barimbing said.
This year alone, Australian authorities intercepted 12 boats carrying asylum-seekers mostly from Afghanistan and the Middle East, against seven last year.
The IOM's 2008 annual report stated it had helped 136 "irregular migrants" mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan last year, with 91 resettled in third countries and 36 returned voluntarily. The remainder were reunited with their lost families in different countries.
This year the IOM has helped 48 mostly Afghan asylum seekers to return home voluntarily and resettled 36 in third countries, including Canada and Australia, said Jihan Labetubun, an IOM Indonesia official.
Law enforcement
Indonesia said the recent arrests of undocumented migrants showed that law enforcers were doing their job well.
"It shows that the government has been successful in detecting the presence of illegal migrants. This is positive in terms of law enforcement," the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Teuku Faizasyah, told IRIN.
He also said the government was considering holding asylum seekers under one roof in Jakarta, instead of keeping them in separate immigration centres across the country under the present system, to monitor them more effectively.
Indonesian Justice Minister Andi Mattalatta and a high-level Australian delegation led by Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus met in Jakarta on 4 June to discuss further efforts to tackle people smuggling and the flow of undocumented migrants.
The two countries agreed on new measures, including improving arrangements for the care of migrants in Indonesia, detention management, mutual legal assistance and training for immigration and law enforcement agencies, the Australian embassy said in a statement issued on 4 June.
In a posting on the Australian Home Affairs Ministry's website, Debus said the government had allocated an additional Aus$654 million (US$531 million) to combat people smuggling.
"Our strengthened border security measures will enable us to identify people smugglers, intercept people-smuggling ventures and prosecute people smugglers," he said.
Meanwhile, Anita Restu, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Indonesia, said her office was verifying the status of 821 asylum seekers who had applied for refugee status, from Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Iran and Somalia.
"They will undergo an interview process," Restu told IRIN, adding that it would take time before it could be determined whether they were eligible for refugee status and resettled.
The IOM said it was cooperating with Indonesia and Australia under a tripartite agreement allowing Indonesia to determine the intention of intercepted migrants.
Those identified as transiting through Indonesia on their way to Australia or New Zealand were referred to IOM for assistance.
70 illegals in leaking vessel nabbed at seaWednesday June 10, 2009
PORT KLANG: Seventy illegal immigrants sneaking out of Malaysia were detained by Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (APMM) officers during an ambush near here on Monday night.
And the 70 Indonesian nationals can consider themselves lucky. The boat they were in, which was too small for a group that size, was already leaking when the agency caught up with them and averted what could have been a tragedy.
Following a tip-off, five APMM officers in a speedboat stopped the Indonesians as they made their way out in a fishing boat from Pulau Ketam.
Six children below the age of three were also in the group of Indonesians comprising
34 men and 30 women aged between 19 and 45.
APMM southern region enforcement chief First Admiral Che Hassan Jusoh said in a statement that the enforcement team managed to stop the boat and nab the occupants after a 10-minute chase 1.9 nautical miles west of Pulau Ketam.
The passengers were brought ashore for questioning before they were handed over to the Immigration Department.
The illegal immigrants, believed to have been heading towards Tanjong Balai Asahan, Indonesia, are liable to be charged under the Immigration Act 1959/63 for leaving the country through an illegal exit point.
Print :- Nine Afghan migrants killed after boat sinks off IndonesiaPosted on : 2009-05-29 | Author : DPA
Jakarta - Nine people were killed and 11 were missing after a boat carrying 36 undocumented migrants from Afghanistan sank off Indonesia's Sumatra island, police said Friday. Sixteen people were rescued by fishermen after the boat capsized Thursday off Riau province, said Arifin, a local police officer who like many Indonesians uses only one name.
Indonesia's Immigration Department has said about 900 asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka and other countries are currently being detained pending an examination of their status.
Undocumented migrants from South Asia and the Middle East seeking better lives in Australia have for years used Indonesia as a transit country.
UNHCR | Refworld | Indonesia: Tough times for returning labour migrants
JAKARTA, 14 May 2009 (IRIN) - For Risti Ariyani, the dream of working abroad and helping her family is over.
Her contract with a computer components factory in Malaysia was abruptly cancelled because of the global financial crisis, leaving her no choice but to return home to Central Jaffa Province.
"My family was counting on me," the 20-year-old said. "Everyone, including my sisters now in school, depended on the money I sent back."
In 2008, some 200,000 Indonesian nationals were sent home from Malaysia because of the recession.
Most come from rural areas of the world's fourth most populous nation where poverty is particularly rife.
"Due to the global crisis, I see more migrant workers from other sectors returning," Choirul Hadi, secretary-general of the Indonesian Migrant Workers' Trade Union, told IRIN.
Between 1,500 and 2,000 migrants were now returning through Jakarta's Sukarno Hatta international airport every day, he said, with serious implications for thousands of families.
The subsequent drop in remittances will likely squeeze families - many of whom were already living on the edge - even harder.
Earlier this year, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) warned that the financial crisis threatened to undermine the government's ability to meet its poverty reduction and employment targets.
A large segment of the population was vulnerable to shocks and at risk of falling below, or further below the poverty line, a 31 March statement read.
"You can only imagine the impact this will have," Albert Bonasahat, national project coordinator for the International Organization for Labour (ILO), told IRIN, noting the importance of remittances not just on the immediate family, but the extended family as well.
"This will, of course, stop the development of the local economy," he said.
Eighty percent of labour migrants are the only breadwinner for their families, with the vast majority women from poor rural families, he added.
Upfront costs
Yet for those who only recently went abroad to work, including Risti Ariyani, retrenchment can be particularly bitter.
Many had borrowed heavily to pay agent fees and other charges to secure their employment and have had the least amount of time working to recoup those costs.
When work visas are cancelled, there is little chance of a refund.
The government estimates there are approximately 2.7 million documented Indonesian migrant workers working overseas, while the number of undocumented workers could be four times that.
Dependency on remittances
Approximately 700,000 documented migrant workers go overseas annually to help their families and send back much-needed remittances ? a policy the government has actively supported.
According to the World Bank, the registered remittances Indonesian migrant workers send home account for more than US$6 billion annually, comprising the second-highest source of income after oil and gas.
In some provinces, including East Java and Nusa Tenggara Barat, they are the primary source of income, even surpassing government assistance levels.
Most families use the money for daily household expenditures such as food and other necessities.
Of the 400 respondents surveyed for a study in five Indonesian provinces (Lampung, West Java, Central Java, East Java and West Nusa Tenggara) in December 2008-January 2009, on average, 37 percent of the migrant workers' families were fully dependent on remittances for their family's income, while in West Nusa Tenggara that level of dependency was 86 percent.
Alongside the Philippines and Sri Lanka, Indonesia is one of the few Asian countries that deploy more female than male migrant workers, most of whom have a low level of education and work in unskilled or semi-skilled jobs.
About 80 percent of all Indonesian migrant workers are women, mostly domestic workers. Some 60 percent are in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Jordan and Qatar, with the rest in Asia Pacific, including Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan.
The ILO projects up to 52 million jobs worldwide could be destroyed by the global economic crisis in 2009.
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Indonesian police arrest 28 Afghan migrants_English_Xinhua
JAKARTA, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian police have arrested and detained 28 Afghan migrants for heading to Australia, National Police Spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said here Wednesday.
The spokesman said that they were arrested in a ferry at Banten area about 100 kilometers from Jakarta, capital of the country.
"They were arrested in Banten," he told Xinhua.
They were detained at immigration prisons for question, Nataprawira said.
Indonesia has been a favorable transit spot for those illegal migrants from Afghanistan and other countries insisting to enter Australia with dangerous boat journey.
Indonesia and Australia have cooperated in handling the human trafficking.
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