•  
  •  
 

Abstract

With prolonged transit times, refugees’ right to health in Indonesia has become an urgent issue. This article asks how healthcare providers are positioned within Indonesia’s ambiguous refugee health provision regime. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork, this study moves beyond a legalistic analysis of refugee health rights by foregrounding the precarious positions of healthcare providers themselves. We examine Presidential Regulation 125/2016 as well as state and non-state actors’ views on what are often described as structural barriers in improving refugees’ rights. We argue that conditions of informality, which both arise from and perpetuate institutional ambiguity, systematically undermine refugees’ right to health while simultaneously constraining healthcare providers’ authority and capacity to act. These dynamics contribute to the reproduction of an unjust migration regime in which healthcare providers are compelled to operate within severely limited referral and decision-making frameworks.

Abstrak

Dengan waktu transit yang sangat lama, masalah hak kesehatan pengungsi di Indonesia menjadi isu yang amat mendesak. Artikel ini mengkaji bagaimana penyedia layanan kesehatan diposisikan dalam rezim penyediaan layanan kesehatan bagi pengungsi yang ambigu di Indonesia. Berbasis pada kerja lapangan kualitatif, studi ini melampaui analisis legalistik atas hak kesehatan pengungsi dengan menempatkan posisi rentan penyedia layanan kesehatan sebagai fokus analisis. Kami menganalisis Peraturan Presiden (Perpres) 125/2016 serta pandangan aktor negara dan non-negara terhadap apa yang kerap disebut sebagai hambatan struktural dalam upaya pemenuhan hak-hak pengungsi. Kami berargumen bahwa kondisi informalitas—yang sekaligus muncul dari dan mereproduksi ambiguitas institusional—secara sistematis melemahkan pemenuhan hak kesehatan pengungsi, sekaligus membatasi otoritas dan kapasitas penyedia layanan kesehatan untuk bertindak.

References

Abraham, Itty. 2020. "Host Communities and Refugees in Southeast Asia: Report on a Workshop Held at the National University of Singapore (NUS), 10–11 May 2019." Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 35(1):178–187.

Abraham, Itty. 2024. “The Limits of Refugee Protection in Urban Southeast Asia: A View from Above and Below.” Pp. 33–54 in Refugee Protection in Southeast Asia: Between Humanitarianism and Sovereignty, edited by S. Kneebone, R. Mariñas, A. Missbach, and M. Walden. New York: Berghahn Books.

Adiputera, Yunizar, and Atin Prabandari. 2018. Addressing Challenges and Identifying Opportunities for Refugee Access to Employment in Indonesia. Policy Brief. Yogyakarta: Institute of International Studies.

Asif, Zara, and Hanna Kienzler. 2022. “Structural Barriers to Refugee, Asylum Seeker and Undocumented Migrant Healthcare Access: Perceptions of Doctors of the World Caseworkers in the UK.” SSM – Mental Health 2:100088. doi:10.1016/j.ssmmh.2022.100088.

Ayuningtyas, Dumilah, and Raden Roro Mega Utami. 2020. “Health Care of Refugees in Indonesia: A Case Study in Kupang City, Indonesia.” Research Square (Preprint). doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-19977/v1.

Bellino, Michelle J., and Realisa D. Masardi. 2025. “Education Pioneers in Indonesia and Kenya: Refugee Youth Inhabiting Educational Spaces in Sites of Transit and Encampment.” Pp. 117–139 in Youth, Transitions and Social Justice, edited by B. McShane and M. Whelan. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

Botfield, Jessica R., Christy E. Newman, and Anthony B. Zwi. 2017. “Drawing Them In: Professional Perspectives on the Complexities of Engaging ‘Culturally Diverse’ Young People with Sexual and Reproductive Health Promotion and Care in Sydney, Australia.” Culture, Health & Sexuality 19(4):438–452. doi:10.1080/13691058.2016.1233354.

Curby, Nicole. 2020. “The Wait: Indonesia’s Refugees Describe Life Stuck in an Interminable Limbo.” The Guardian, October 17.

De Vito, Elisabetta, Chiara de Waure, Maria Lucia Specchia, Paolo Parente, Elena Azzolini, Emanuela Maria Frisicale, Marcella Favale, Adele Anna Teleman, and Walter Ricciardi. 2016. “Are Undocumented Migrants’ Entitlements and Barriers to Healthcare a Public Health Challenge for the European Union?” Public Health Reviews 37. doi:10.1186/s40985-016-0026-3.

Dewansyah, Bilal, and Ratu Durotun Nafisah. 2021. “The Constitutional Right to Asylum and Humanitarianism in Indonesian Law: ‘Foreign Refugees’ and PR 125/2016.” Asian Journal of Law and Society 8(3):536–557. doi:10.1017/ als.2021.8.

Dimitriadis, Ilias. 2023. “Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Informal and Precarious Jobs: Early Labour Market Insertion from the Perspectives of Professionals and Volunteers.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 43(13–14):263–277. doi:10.1108/IJSSP-08-2023-0191.

Fernando, Gabriela, Asiyah Nida Khafiyya, Anak Agung Istri Diah Tricesaria, Jessica Watterson, and Sabina Satriyani Puspita. 2025. “Healthcare Access and Outcomes for Refugee Women in Transit: A Scoping Review of Facilitators and Barriers in South and Southeast Asia.” Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. doi:10.1007/s10903-025-01722-w.

Fernández, Joshua Soriano. 2025. “Navigating Informal Arrangements in Migration Governance in Urban Areas.” Broad-er (blog), March 3.

Government of Indonesia. 1999. Law No. 39 of 1999 on Human Rights.

Government of Indonesia. 2023. Law No. 17 of 2023 on Health.

Hoffman, Jessica, Belinda J. Liddell, Danielle Keegan, Shobhit Kashyap, Anak Agung Istri Diah Tricesaria, Zina Pestalozzi, and Angela Nickerson. 2023. “The Impact of COVID-19 Stressors on Refugee Mental Health and Well-Being in the Context of Sustained Displacement.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 93(2):144–155.

Honein-Abou Haidar, Ghinwa, Aline Noubani, Nour El Arnaout, et al. 2019. “Informal Healthcare Provision in Lebanon: An Adaptive Mechanism among Displaced Syrian Health Professionals in a Protracted Crisis.” Conflict and Health 13(40). doi:10.1186/ s13031-019-0224-y.

Hossain, A. Z. 2023. “Educational Crisis of Rohingya Refugee Children in Bangladesh: Access, Obstacles, and Prospects to Formal and Non-Formal Education.” Heliyon 9(7):e18346. doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18346.

International Organization for Migration (IOM). 2024. IOM Indonesia Year in Review 2024.

Kho, Wilsen Widal. 2022. “Addressing How Structural Barriers and Intersectionalities Influence Refugee Children’s and Adolescents’ Health in Indonesia.” SCORP.

Kiselev, Nikolai, Monique Pfaltz, Florence Haas, et al. 2020. “Structural and Socio-Cultural Barriers to Accessing Mental Healthcare among Syrian Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Switzerland.” European Journal of Psychotraumatology 11(1). doi:10.1080/20008198.2020.1717825.

Kleinman, Arthur, and Peter Benson. 2006. “Anthropology in the Clinic: The Problem of Cultural Competency and How to Fix It.” PLoS Medicine 3(10). doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030294.

Kneebone, Susan, Antje Missbach, and Balawyn Jones. 2021. “The False Promise of Presidential Regulation No. 125 of 2016?” Asian Journal of Law and Society 8(3):431–450. doi:10.1017/als.2021.2.

Kneebone, Susan, Reyvi Mariñas, Antje Missbach, and Max Walden, eds. 2025. Refugee Protection in Southeast Asia: Between Humanitarianism and Sovereignty. New York: Berghahn Books.

Kurt, Gulsah, et al. 2025. “Profiles of Coping Resources and Their Associations with Mental Health and Social Functioning among Refugees in Indonesia.” Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health 12:e100. doi:10.1017/gmh.2025.10053.

Legido-Quigley, Helena, Fiona Leh Hoon Chuah, Natasha Howard, et al. 2020. “Southeast Asian Health System Challenges and Responses to the ‘Andaman Sea Refugee Crisis.’” PLoS Medicine 17(11):e1003143. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1003143.

Masardi, Realisa D. 2021. Independent Refugee Youth in Waiting: Social Navigations While in Transit in Indonesia. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Amsterdam.

Masardi, Realisa D. 2024. “‘Partial Protection’ for Refugees: Aspirations of Refugee Activists in Indonesia.” Pp. 89–114 in Refugee Protection in Southeast Asia, edited by S. Kneebone et al. New York: Berghahn Books.

Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology. 2019. Circular Letter No. 75253/A.A4/HK/2019.

Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology. 2022. Circular Letter No. 30546/A.A5/HK.01.00/2022.

Ministry of Health. 2021a. Circular Letter No. HK.01.07/MENKES/4718 2021.

Ministry of Health. 2021b. Circular Letter No. HK.01.07/MENKES/4641/ 2021.

Ministry of Home Affairs. 2020a. Circular of the Minister of Home Affairs No. 300/2307/SJ on the Establishment of Provincial Refugee Task Forces.

Ministry of Home Affairs. 2020b. Circular of the Minister of Home Affairs No. 300/2308/SJ on the Establishment of Regency/City Refugee Task Forces.

Missbach, Antje. 2015. Troubled Transit: Asylum Seekers Stuck in Indonesia. Singapore: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.

Morse, Ian. 2019. “‘Open Prison’: The Growing Despair of Refugees Stuck in Indonesia.” Al Jazeera, March 4.

Nickerson, Angela, Jessica Hoffman, Danielle Keegan, et al. 2022. “Context, Coping, and Mental Health in Refugees Living in Protracted Displacement.” Journal of Traumatic Stress 35:1769–1782. doi:10.1002/ jts.22885.

Palmer, William, and Antje Missbach. 2018. “Enforcing Labour Rights of Irregular Migrants in Indonesia.” Third World Quarterly 40(5):908–925. doi:10.1080/01436597.2018.1522586.

Presidential Regulation. 2016. Presidential Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia No. 125 of 2016 on the Handling of Foreign Refugees.

Prabaningtyas, R. A. R. F., T. N. Pudjiastuti, A. N. Alami, and F. Farhana. 2023. “Access to Education for Refugee Children in Indonesia during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” ASEAS – Advances in Southeast Asian Studies 16(1):39–61.

Ramadani, R. Yahdi, Aktieva Tri Tjitrawati, Mochamad Kevin Romadhona, Enny Narwati, and Sri Endah Kinasih. 2023. “The Right to Health for All: Is Indonesia Fully Committed to Protecting Refugees and Asylum Seekers?” Jurnal Hubungan Luar Negeri 8(2):55–80. doi:10.70836/ jh.v8i2.11.

Ramadani, R. Yahdi, Aktieva Tri Tjitrawati, and Mochamad Kevin Romadhona. 2024. “Humanitarian Commitment: Indonesia’s Policy on Refugees’ Rights to Health.” Healthcare in Low-Resource Settings 12(s2). doi:10.4081/hls.2024.12603.

Riyandanu, Muhammad Fajar. 2025. “BPJS Kesehatan Records a Deficit of IDR 9.56 Trillion, Affecting Financial Sustainability.” Katadata February 11.

Sadjad, Mahardhika Sjamsoe’oed. 2021. “What Are Refugees Represented to Be?” Asian Journal of Law and Society 8(3):451–466. doi:10.1017/ als.2021.3.

Sianturi, Marupa Hasudungan, and Nino Viartasiwi. 2021. “Advocating Temporary Rights to Work for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Transit in Indonesia.” Indonesia Law Review 11(3). doi:10.15742/ilrev.v11n3.2.

Sutter, Christopher, Jeffrey Webb, Geoffrey Kistruck, David J. Ketchen Jr., and R. Duane Ireland. 2017. “Transitioning Entrepreneurs from Informal to Formal Markets.” Journal of Business Venturing 32(4):420– 442. doi:10.1016/j.jbusvent.2017.03.002.

Suyatna, I. Nyoman, I. Made Budi Arsika, Ni Gusti Ayu Dyah Satyawati, Rohaida Nordin, and Balawyn Jones. 2021. “Assessment of the Responsibility of Local Governments in Indonesia for the Management of Refugee Care.” Asian Journal of Law and Society 8(3):467–489. doi:10.1017/als.2021.4.

Toivonen, Anni. 2023. “Refugee Economic Self-Reliance Practices.” Geoforum 140:103700. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103700.

United Nations. 1948. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Geneva.

UNHCR. 1951. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol.

UNHCR. 2023. Indonesia Fact Sheet: December 2023.

UNHCR. 2024. Asia and the Pacific Regional Trends: Forced Displacement and Statelessness 2023.

UNHCR. 2025a. Mid-Year Trends 2025.

UNHCR. 2025b. Refugee Statistics.

UNHCR. 2025c. Refugee Data Finder.

UN Indonesia. 2021. “Vaccinating Refugees in Indonesia, for the Benefit of All.”

Viartasiwi, Nino. 2024. “Nonstate Actors’ Practices and Agency in Indonesian Refugee Protection.” Pp. 237–264 in Refugee Protection in Southeast Asia, edited by S. Kneebone et al. New York: Berghahn Books.

World Health Organization (WHO). 2021. Mapping Health Systems’ Responsiveness to Refugee and Migrant Health Needs.

Yulianti, Yulianti, Nabila Kharima, and Purwanto Haryadi. 2024. “Dynamics of Alternative Education for Refugees.” Proceedings of the International Conference on Education, Society, and Humanity 2(1):258–271.

Share

COinS