Niko Leka
16 January 2010Indonesia plans to force the 240 Tamil refugees, moored on a boat in Merak, into detention at the end of this week, “at gunpoint if necessary”, the January 14 Australian reported.
The refugees have refused to leave the boat, which has been at Merak since October, when Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to ask that Indonesian authorities “intercept” the boat carrying 254 travelling to Australia.
With good reason, the refugees fear being jailed in Indonesia for up to 10 years, or being deported back to Sri Lanka.
The situation for those onboard the boat is increasingly dire.
Several people have fallen seriously ill and Indonesian authorities won’t allow adequate food or medical supplies to reach the boat.
Tragically, on December 23, a young man called Jacob Christin died in agony. The desperate asylum seekers had called Brisbane-based physician Dr Brian Seniweratne, a staunch advocate for Tamil people. Based on the phone call, Seniweratne believes Christin was probably suffering from appendicitis.
Christin’s condition had deteriorated to the point that he was taken to hospital. However, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) discharged him against his will — he could not even stand up — because it said it could not pay his hospital bills.
Christin died within six hours of being discharged.
Over December 18-28, a humanitarian team of refugee advocates based in Australia and Malaysia visited Indonesia to investigate the situation and conditions of the Tamils in Merak.
The team tried to deliver Australian Humanitarian Visa application forms to those on the boat, but were not allowed. They instead left them at the hospital, where they were later confiscated by Indonesian officials. One asylum seeker, Sammy, was arrested for having some forms in his possession.
The refugee advocates brought back a statement from Manju, one of the 27 women on the boat. She is five months pregnant. “I get very hungry however I don’t get the quantity of food that is required to satisfy me and the child growing within me”, she said.
“The food we get is not that great and I struggle to eat it.”
Manju is in pain after being kicked accidentally in the stomach due to the cramped sleeping conditions on the boat.
The details of Rudd’s deal with Yudhoyono — dubbed the “Indonesia Solution” — which led to the current appalling and uncertain situation for the Merak asylum seekers, remain secret.
Coalition opposition leader Tony Abbott has called on Rudd to “come clean” about it and “tell us exactly what he said to President Yudhoyono [when he made the phone call last year] because plainly the Indonesians now think these people are our responsibilities, not theirs”, according to AAP on December 30.
The humanitarian team, who spoke to several Indonesian authorities, came to the same conclusion. They met, for example, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Dr Sujatmiko, the Director of Diplomatic Services. Ministry officials expressed dissatisfaction with the deal, according to the team’s report.
“They expressed unhappiness regarding [Rudd’s] phone call to intercept the boat which has resulted in a burden on their country”, the report said. “They advised that they do not want asylum seekers to use Indonesia as a transit country. We reminded them that this boat load of people did not use Indonesia as a transit country but were towed into Indonesia by the Indonesian Navy whilst on route from Malaysia to Australia at the request of the Australian Prime Minister.”
Nur Kholis from the Indonesian National Commission of Human Rights told the refugee advocates: “These refugees wanted to flee to Australia or New Zealand, which protect their rights as refugees, and therefore Australia using Indonesia to intercept their freedom and hold them in Indonesia does not respect refugee rights, and was an inhumane act.”
Foreign affairs officials have not permitted United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees staff access to the boat. More than 109 refugees on board had UNCHR status before boarding. Still, Australia won’t accept them. The other refugees are prevented from lodging applications.
Doctors, media, relatives and supporters are not allowed near the boat.
The IOM — which discharged Christin, leading to his death — receives more than $12 million each year from the Australian government to care for asylum seekers in Indonesia. The IOM withdrew from the vicinity of the boat in early November. It has restricted medical services to reduce costs.
Sanjeev “Alex” Kuhendrarajah has become the spokesperson for the refugees on the boat. The humanitarian team learned that Alex had been beaten in the presence of an Indonesian foreign affairs department director when “he attempted to explain to the Indonesian authorities that Mr Christin’s death could have been prevented if medical attention was not withheld by the IOM”.
Eight asylum seekers left the boat two months ago, promised they would get access to the UNHCR. Instead they remain imprisoned in a cell so small they have to take turns to lie down and sleep. They receive only two meals a day, and are not allowed exercise.
On January 8, Saradha Nathan — one of the advocates who took part in the humanitarian mission — issued a statement saying Indonesian immigration staff had granted Sri Lankan officials access to the eight Tamils. In other words, refugees fleeing persecution in Sri Lanka were interrogated by the very people they fear may kill them if they return.
Sri Lankan officials are attempting to have the eight detainees deported back to the place they fled.
Nathan said they had threatened to deport all those on the boat to Boosa jail in Sri Lanka.
One asylum seeker returned voluntarily to Sri Lanka in December to look after his sick mother. He was arrested on arrival, and is now held at Boosa jail.
Global actions on January 18 marked 100 days since Rudd rang Yudhoyono to cut the deal. Actions were planned across Australia, as well as in New Zealand, Britain and Canada. There are also postcard campaigns in Malaysia and the United States.
The Merak refugees who remain on the boat are demanding that Australia honour its obligations as a signatory to the UN refugee convention.
[To see the full report from the humanitarian visit to Merak, visit tinyurl.com/yjg7l2k.]
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