TEMPO.CO, Makassar - South Sulawesi has been flooded with immigrants. Currently, there are nearly 2,000 foreign immigrants staying in the province. Based on immigration records at South Sulawesi’s Regional Office of Justice and Human Rights Ministry, there are 1,999 illegal immigrants currently staying there.
According to South Sulawesi's immigrations office chief, Andi Pallawarukka, the immigrants are placed in 28 community houses and an immigration detention home. There are also a number of immigrants placed at Makassar’s immigration office.
“South Sulawesi has the largest number of immigrants in Indonesia,” Pallawarukka said on Thursday, January 5, 2017.
Pallawarukka said that the immigrants come from a number of places, among others 1,283 people from Afghanistan, 219 from Myanmar, 81 from Iran, 171 from Somalia, 77 from Sudan, 38 from Irak, 30 from Sri Lanka, 37 from Ethiopia, 46 from Pakistan, 12 Palestinians, and 2 Yemenis. “The majority actually comes from the Middle East,” he added.
From the total number of immigrants, 1,154 of them are under the status of refugees. Meanwhile, 792 of them are asylum seekers, and 43 others were rejected. “There are 10 people that can’t be processed and were forced to be deported from Indonesia,” Pallawarukka said.
South Sulawesi Governor Yasin Limpo stated that the number of immigrants should not increase in the future. He urges the Immigrations Department to process every case related to the foreign immigrant. The government will attempt to place the immigrants in Australia or other third world countries. “Their main destination is not Indonesia,” Palawarukka said.
The immigrants, indeed, only transit in Indonesia to continue their journey to Australia or any other third world countries. Indonesia currently accommodates 13,000 individuals. Other than Makassar, the immigrants are also placed in a number of cities, such as Manado, Balikpapan, Jayapura, Medan, Pekanbaru, Tanjung Pinang, and Jakarta.
DIDIT HARIYADI
