INDONESIA: UNHCR representative visits Sri Lankan asylum seekers living on a boat moored at a port for six months

Record ID: 792121

  • Title: INDONESIA: UNHCR representative visits Sri Lankan asylum seekers living on a boat moored at a port for six months
  • Date: 9th April 2010
  • Summary: MERAK PORT, BANTEN PROVINCE, INDONESIA (APRIL 7, 2010) (REUTERS) REFUGEE'S WOODEN BOAT AT MERAK PORT BOAT UNHCR TENT WITH WOODEN BOAT IN BACK GROUND REFUGEES COME TO THE TENT REFUGEES GATHERING IN TENT REFUGEES REGISTERING AT TENT REFUGEES WRITE AT REGISTRATION DESK
  • Embargoed: 24th April 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Indonesia
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVADNKFEIYAXTFBYCU7KNXMBWQWG
  • Story Text: Indonesian government and UNHCR representative officers visit and register Sri Lankan asylum seekers who have been living on a boat moored at a port for six months.
    Hundreds of asylum seekers of Sri Lankan origin met with United Nation High Commission for Refugees representative on Wednesday (April 7) after living on a boat moored at an Indonesian port for nearly six months.
    The asylum seekers' wooden boat was discovered by Indonesian authorities in October 2009 and the Sri Lankans have been waiting to be registered as a "refugee" for their final destination country.
    Indonesian officials decided to allow the wooden boat to stay at the port until international organizations involved in assisting asylum seekers, such as UNHCR and IOM, came to see them.
    "Welcome refugees necessarily have to undertake their own investigation to make sure that they are willing to bring the people back to their country, so it takes time," United Nations High Commission for Refugee representative, Manuel Jordao told journalists during the registration process.
    Indonesia and Malaysia have been a launch pad country for asylum seekers or boat people who are heading to Australia.
    "Authorized the High Commission to exercise this mandate in Indonesia, as long as the people that we identified as refugee would stay temporarily and not definitely, and UNHCR through its office to find a final country of destination," Jordao added.
    Of the 255 on the bought, 50 people escaped from the port and the 205 people left were registered on Wednesday, officials said.
    Last year, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd held talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to discuss the plight of the asylum seekers.
    Australia is seeing the biggest stream of asylum seekers arrivals for seven years, forcing Rudd to defend border protection policies and seek Indonesia's assistance as a transit nation.
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