Jakarta Refugee Protest Condemns Indonesia Solution;
Police Attempt To Arrest Australian Activist

Around 40 people staged a lively protest outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta on Monday, 28 December.

A large banner in Bahasa and English saying, "Reject the Indonesia Solution, Free the Refugees, No to Detention," attracted a lot of attention from passers-by and the local media.

The rally was jointly called by Indonesian and Australian pro-refugee groups, the Confederation Congress of Indonesia Union Alliance, the Working Peoples Association and the Refugee Action Coalition. The joint statement for the rally (pasted below) also highlighted the need for urgent assistance for Tamil asylum seekers at Merak.

A number of Australian humanitarian visa application forms submitted by the Merak asylum seekers were handed to staff at the Embassy. The visa application forms have been a source of controversy over the past week.

Copies of the form were confiscated from people upon returning to the boat from the hospital where they obtained the forms. A few days earlier, authorities at the Jakarta immigration building refused to allow Tamil detainees to complete the forms.

The forms also seem to have been the reason that a Tamil asylum seeker, 'Sammy', was arrested at the Merak hospital on Saturday night. The whereabouts of 'Sammy' is yet to be determined.

The protest outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta had a dramatic ending, when Indonesian police attempted to arrest the Australian activist, Ian Rintoul, as the rally was leaving the Australian embassy. Protesters surrounded Rintoul physically preventing the police making the arrest.

After a tense standoff and legal argument between police and protesters lasting 45 minutes, the police withdrew with a photocopy of Rintoul's passport.

Meanwhile little seems to have been learned from the death of Merak asylum seeker, Jacob, on 23 December. Despite numerous and increasingly desperate requests from early morning by the family of a seriously ill 7 year old girl, no ambulance was provided until after 3pm.

"Kevin Rudd created the Indonesian Solution with his call to the Indonesian president to stop the Merak boat. It was an arbitrary decision that subverts the Refugee Convention by denying protection to asylum seekers. Without Kevin Rudd's call, Jacob would be alive today.

"Genuine refugees have been left in limbo. It is a disgrace that hundreds of asylum seekers are languishing in Indonesian detention centres built with Australian government money. It makes a mockery of the Rudd government claim that the government has a humane policy toward asylum seekers."

A protest will be held in Sydney, 30 December, 12.30pm, at the Immigration Office, Lee Street, Sydney.

For more information contact
Ian Rintoul +62 81398569964 or +61 417 275 713

No to the Indonesian Solution
Free the Refugees; No detention of asylum seekers in Indonesia or Australia Urgent humanitarian aid for the Merak Tamil asylum seekers

On 11 October, the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd personally called the Indonesian President to request that the Indonesian navy intercept a boat carrying Tamil asylum seekers heading for Australia. The Indonesian navy intercepted that boat and took it to Merak, where it has been for the last two and half months.

Under the so-called Indonesian Solution, Australia pays Indonesia hundreds of millions of dollars to intercept and detain asylum seekers seeking Australian protection under the Refugee Convention. The Indonesian Solution means that the Australian and Indonesian governments are co-operating to deny the human rights of asylum seekers.

We believe that international borders should not be closed to asylum seekers. Refugees and asylum seekers should be welcome at international borders.

Tamil, Afghan, Rohingya and other people fleeing persecution and war should be free to seek protection in safe countries. In Australia, the government proclaims that detention of asylum seekers is a last resort, but, in Indonesia, detention centres funded by the Australian government are inflicting misery on hundreds of asylum seekers across the Indonesian archipelago.

Instead of funding detention centres, the Australian government could be providing humanitarian aid for housing and welfare.

The tragic death of Tamil asylum seeker, George Jacob at Merak on December 23 has put the fate of asylum seekers caught by the Indonesian solution into sharp focus. One death is one too many. The Australian government funds the International Organisation of Migration to provide support for asylum seekers in Indonesia but Jacob died because the Indonesian authority and IOM waited too long to take Jacob to hospital.

Without immediate humanitarian assistance for medical care and proper shelter there could easily be another tragedy among the 250 asylum seekers at Merak.

The experience of the Tamil refugees on the Australian ship Oceanic Viking shows that it is possible to quickly process and re-settle asylum seekers in Indonesia. But the Australian government is not willing to take responsibility for the people at Merak. Australia only re-settled 35 refugees from Indonesia in 2008-2009. A regional humanitarian policy for refugees must have a guarantee of resettlement in a safe country.

The Indonesian Solution must be replaced with a humanitarian policy which guarantees the human rights and the freedom of refugees. There must be no limitation on the right of refugee boats to land or on the right to seek asylum and be guaranteed permanent protection and re-settlement.

A successful resolution for the 250 Merak asylum seekers must include;

1. legal representation during Indonesian immigration verification;
2. immediate access to the UNHCR to begin refugee processing;
3. a guarantee against arbitrary detention;
4. support for basic needs while being processed, and
5. a guarantee of non-refoulement; that asylum seekers will not be deported to face danger in any country.
   

Three Australian activists have just got back from Indonesia where they attempted to provide as much assistance as possible to the Tamil asylum seekers on the boat at Merak in Indonesia.

They included Madhuni (a Tamil activist from Melbourne), Saradha (a Tamil activist from Sydney) and Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition in Sydney.

While they did get a chance to meet some of the refugees, they didn't get a chance to get on the boat. Access to the boat has been denied now for several weeks.

While they were in Indonesia, one of the asylum seekers on the boat, George Christen, died after vomiting up blood for 24 hours. He was initially denied medical treatment, then given inadequate medical treatment and sent back to the boat. There is another man on the boat with similar symptoms. (See media release below).

The three activists also got a chance to visit some of the refugees who had got off the boat because they had been promised access to the UNHCR to have their claims examined. This group is in a very tiny detention cell in Jakarta and has not had any access to the UNHCR. They want to return to the boat because conditions in detention are so horrible.

Another asylum seeker from the boat accompanied someone else from the boat to hospital and was then taken away by the Indonesian police and hasn't been seen since.

Media Release

Tragic Death Of Asylum Seeker At Merak, Legacy Of The Indonesian Solution

"The tragic death of a young Tamil man on board the refugee boat at Merak was completely avoidable," said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

Despite appeals to the Indonesian navy and the IOM from early morning Wednesday when the man began vomiting blood, he was not taken to hospital until he began fitting, struggling for breath and foaming at the mouth in the late evening, around 9pm local time. An hour or so later, the man was dead.

The 29 year old had been taken to the IOM motel outside the port area in mid aftrenoon, but he was returned to the boat after about 20 minutes.

According to people on board the boat, they were told that IOM did not have the money to take the man to hospital.   As the man's condition deteriorated in the evening, refugee activists began receiving frantic calls from those on board the boat for assistance. Attempts were made to obtain medical advice from Australian doctors over the phone.

"This boat should never have been at Merak," said Ian Rintoul, "Kevin Rudd made the personal phone call requesting that this boat be intercepted by the Indonesian navy. Over 250 people have been left in limbo for over two and half months, as a result of that phone call. This man's death is a legacy of the Indonesian Solution.

"From advice we have received, this man's death was entirely avoidable had he received early medical attention.

"The people at Merak have been asking for more medical support since IOM withdrew its services from the vicinity of the boat weeks ago. The Australian government pays IOM to provide support for asylum seekers.

There have been numerous cases when authorities have been slow to respond to requests for ambulances. Even Panadol has not been routinely available for children on the boat. There are heavily pregnant women still on the boat.

"The Merak boat has been a tragedy waiting to happen. Kevin Rudd can show his humanitarian credentials by acting swifting to rectify this situation. The Australian government should provide whatever assistance the Indonesian authorities need to provide the medical services and to process the asylum seekers.

"We know from the experience of the Oceanic Viking that processing and arranmegments for re-settlement can be done quickly.   One man was arrested in Sri Lanka when he returned to Colombo and now one man has died. What more needs to happen before the Australian government acts?" asked Ian Rintoul.

Refugee activists had negotiated for Christams presents to be delivered to the children on the boat on Christmas Eve, but instead of celebrations there is anger and devastation on the boat.   Already desperate people, facing an uncertain future, are now even more anxious about their fate.

A resolution at Merak however still seems some way off, as Indonesian government departments work to finalise a proposal in early January for verification, housing and re-settlement of the asylum seekers.

For more information contact Ian Rintoul +62 81 398 569964