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Steve Hamilton: For the Rohingyas, there's nowhere to go  

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19 October 2018 14:58 WIB

In this Friday, May 15, 2015, newly arrived migrants gather at Kuala Langsa Port in Langsa, Aceh province, Indonesia. More than 2,000 Rohingya refugees have landed on the shores of Indonesia's Aceh province, as well as in neighboring Malaysia. AP/Binsar Bakkara

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Steve Hamilton, the Deputy Chief of Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Indonesia, lauded the efforts of the Acehnese people in doing something to help the boat people from Myanmar and Bangladesh. "They're pulling together and seeing this for what it is, people in need," he said.


Nevertheless, Hamilton acknowledged that no government is ever prepared to take in large numbers of refugees at one time. With more than 1,000 refugees already in Aceh, many are worriedly preparing for the arrival of the estimated 5,000 people still feared to be at sea. Tempo English reporter Amanda Siddharta interviewed Hamilton to discuss the challenges ahead. Excerpts:


What are the challenges faced by the government in dealing with the boat people from Myanmar and Bangladesh?


It's just the overall numbers, no one really expected this many to come to Indonesia. I think no communities are prepared to deal with it. If we didn't have such good local government support, it would be near impossible. So the challenges are what people are already asking, like where are they going next, an answer nobody has. As for the Rohingyas, the difficulty is that, once they hear they're not going anywhere, they'll be in Indonesia for a very long time. They traditionally will not resettle, so we're looking at years and years in Indonesia. For the Bangladeshis, it's different, most opt to go home. It'll be challenging for days to come as people will start asking, 'great we're helping now but when do these people go somewhere else?'. Right now, that somewhere else isn't even close to being identified.



Are you saying that refugees are taken in with the assumption they will be resettled elsewhere?


Yes, and to have that commitment that they can stay is difficult. Indonesia overall has done a fantastic job with the number of refugees and asylum seekers they already allow to stay here. But that's done with the expectation that there'll be some resettlement. With the Rohingya population it's a bit different, they aren't really being resettled. So if you got an increasing Rohingya population, you're really agreeing to a larger population of refugees for a very long time.



Should Indonesia settle them in a camp, like Galang Island, as they did in 1979?


I wouldn't think a camp makes things better in this kind of situation. Galang was a part of a process where you had a whole list of resettlement lined up to take people off. In this case, you have nobody taking that. So if you were to set up a camp, all you would be doing is ballooning a population where there's nowhere to go. So, if Indonesia did that, they would have to do it with a different mindset, not that they're setting this up so that they could be resettled, they're setting this up for a long term protection. So is Indonesia willing to give an island that they're willing to say 'Okay, for 25-30 years we're comfortable for them staying here'? There's no long list of people lining up to take the Rohingyas.



What kind of permanent solution can be offered to them?


Permanent solutions are an individual outcome. You have to go through and see people's individual problem. I mean there'll be some that are extremely vulnerable, the UNHCR might refer them for resettlement. They'll be asked to be temporarily protected until such time they can go home. That could be five years, 10 years, that could be never. So it's hard to get those answers. There's got to be a political solution at the end of the day. It needs to be elevated to a much wider discussion with much more government involved in the discussion.



How should ASEAN deal with this issue?


It's a problem that goes well beyond the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). If you look at the Rohingyas, you can't have the discussion without including Bangladesh in the discussion. It really needs to be ASEAN plus one. The Bali Process is an equally useful tool in this sense, because it extends to some of the other countries as well. Maybe it should be ASEAN linking up with the Bali Process to really highlight the issues that need to be discussed further. Maybe they should be looking at the most affected countries and calling something like the Jakarta declaration did. They identified the most affected countries on smuggling, so maybe there could be something similar here. (*)



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