•  
  •  
 

Abstract

Being a party in the 1951 Convention on the Status Relating to Refugees and its 1967 Protocol is not an exclusive solution to legal protection of asylum seekers and refugees in Indonesia. Although the Government of Indonesia has not ratified both instruments, it has acknowledge the protection of asylum seekers and refugees under the People Consultative Assembly (MPR) Decree Number XVII Year 1998 and Law Number 37 year 1999 regarding Foreign Relations. A 2016 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that Indonesia has become a transit destination for more than 13,000 asylum seekers and refugees, including nearly 1,000 Rohing- ya asylum seekers. Asylum seekers suffers the most in Indonesia’s legal imbroglio. Despite the existing laws, the government of Indonesia has been identifying asylum seekers as illegal migrants under Immigration Law and kept them inside Immigra- tion Detention Centres (IDCs), with common reports on ill-treatment and rampant violence. As a transit country, Indonesia carries the moral and legal responsibility to protect refugees during their transit with the ultimate purpose to prepare them to be resettled in countries that have signed the 1951 Convention. During this commonly lengthy and uncertain period or transit where the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or International Organization of Migrants will issue their refugees ap- plication result, protection should not be absent. Instead of suggesting Indonesia to ratify the 1951 Convention on the Status Relating to Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, this paper argues that Indonesian existing laws and regulations have provides it with national and international obligations to protect asylum seekers in transit, including to refrain from refoulement action. Thus, rendering the claim of an absence legal basis an irrelevant excuse.

References

Books and Journals

Harvey, C. Time for Reform? Refugees, Asylum-seekers and Protection under Inter- national Human Rights Law. Refugee Survey Quarterly 2014, 0, 1–17.

JRS Asia Pacific. “The Search: Protection Space in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines”. JRS Asia Pacific2012. (Available at: http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/506bfb622.pdf).

Liliansa, Dita and Anbar Jayadi. “Should Indonesia Accede to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol?”. Indonesia LawReview (2015) 3: 324-

346.

Menendez, Fernando M. Marino. “Recent Jurisprudence of the United Nations Committee against Torture and the International Protection of Refugees”, Refugee Survey Quarterly 2015, 0, 1-18.

Missbach, Antje and Frieda Sinanu. “Life and Death in Immigration Detention, In- side Indonesia”. Inside Indonesia July-September 2013. (Available at: http://www.insideindonesia.org/life-and-death-in-immigration-detention).

Missbach, Antje. “Waiting on the islands of ‘stuckedness’: managing asylum seek- ers in island detention camps in Indonesia; from the late 1970s to the early 2000s”, ASEAS - Österreichische Zeitschrift für Südostasienwissenschaften 6 (2013), 2, pp. 281-306. (Available at: http://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bit- stream/handle/document/40154/ssoar-aseas-2013-2-missbach-Waiting_on_ the_islands_of.pdf?sequence=1)

. “Essay: Transit Migrants in Indonesia between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea”. Pacific Geographies #39, January/February 2013.

Persaud, S. Protecting Refugees and Asylum Seekers under the International Cov- enant on Civil and Political Rights. UNHCR, New Issues in Refugee Re- search, No. 132, 2006.

Supaat, Dina Imam. “Escaping the Principle of Non-Refoulement”. International Journal of Business, Economics and Law, Vol. 2, Issue 3 (June) (86-97). pg. 88, (available at:http://ijbel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Escaping- The-Principle-Of-Non-Refoulement-Dina-Imam-Supaat.pdf).

Task Force Pemantauan RANHAM. Evaluasi Pelaksanaan RANHAM 2004- 2009 dan Rencana Ratifikasi Optional Protocol to theConvention against Torture (CAT) dalam RANHAM 2004-2009 dan Perencanaan RAN- HAM 2010-2014. (Available at: http://www.kemitraan.or.id/sites/default/ files/20120809092409.Evaluasi%20Pelaksanaan%20RANHAM%202004-2009.pdf)

Taylor Savitri and Brynna Rafetti-Brown. “Difficult Journeys: Accessing Refugee Protection in Indonesia”. Monash University Law Review (2010) 36(3).

UNHCR. Guidelines on the Applicable Criteria and Standards relating to the De- tention of Asylum-Seekers and Alternatives to Detention (UNHCR, De- tention Guidelines), 2012. (Available at: http://www.refworld.org/do- cid/503489533b8.html). UNHCR Indonesia Fact Sheet (February 2016). (Available at: http://www.unhcr.org/50001bda9.pdf).

Weissbrodt, David and Isabel Hortreiter. “The Principle of Non-Refoulement: Arti- cle 3 of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or De- grading Treatment or Punishment in Comparison with the Non-Refoulement Provisions of Other International Human Rights Treaties”. 5 Buff. Hum. Rts.

L. Rev. 1 (1999). (Available at http://scholarship.law.umn.edu/faculty_arti- cles/362).

News Reports

Directorate General of Immigration. The Jakarta Immigration Detention House Have Overcapacity of Asylum Seekers. (Available at: http://ww. imigrasi.go.id/index.php/en/berita/berita-utama/842-the-jakarta-immigra- tion-detention-house-has-overcapacity-of-asylum-seekers).

Duxson, Sophie. Filling the Legal Gap, Inside Indonesia Edition 124: April–June 2016, (Available at: http://www.insideindonesia.org/filling-the-legal-vacu- um).

Global Detention Project. Indonesia Immigration Detention. (Available at: http://

www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/asia-pacific/indonesia).

Human Rights Watch. Barely Surviving: Detention, Abuse, and Neglect Migrant Children in Indonesia. (Available at: https://www.hrw.org/report/2013/06/23/ barely-surviving/detention-abuse-and-neglect-migrant-children-indonesia)

Download

Share

COinS