Golkar faction Chairman Ignasius W Mimin – Jubi/Arjuna Pademme
Jayapura, Jubi – The Golkar faction at the Papua Legislative Council rejected a decision by the Batam Immigration Office tto relocate some refugees and asylum-seekers from Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia and Afganistan to Papua due to a shortage of shelters.
Golkar faction Chairman Ignasius W Mimin said the group rejected the plan because Papua is not a ‘trash basket’ or shelters for undocumented people and that Batam Immigration Office should not randomly move those immigrants to Papua.
“While the Indonesian citizens who come to Papua would be limited. Now Papuan stakeholders are struggling to protect the indigenous Papuans by restricting the migrants from other Indonesian regions. So how could we accept foreign citizens? Papua doesn’t need them. The goal is not clear,” Mimin told Jubi on Friday (10/6/2016).
He also question why should the refugees and asylum-seekers to be transfered to the Immigration Detention House in Jayapura, Papua instead of to other provinces. He asked Batam Immigration Office to review its plan.
“Do not just send those refugees and asylum-seekers to Papua. Moreover, they are coming from troubled countries and have no clear purpose. Papua is not such a region to accommodate the trouble,” he said.
He said this plan should be coordinated first with the Papua Provincial Government, not only included the Jayapura Immigration Office. He worried this would raise a new problem in Papua.
Some refugees and asylum-seekers from several countries such as Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan are planning to be moved in Papua due to the shelters in Batam have been overloaded.
Batam Immigration Office Chief Agus Widjaja said currently there are 351 refugees and asylum-seekers in Batam. They are now staying at Sekupang Immigration Detention House and a hotel in Nagoya area. In the near future, some of them were scheduled to be transferred to Jayapura.
“58 refugees are now staying at Sekupang Immigration Detention House, while the rest is in Nagoya. The unmarried occupants in Nagoya will be replaced to Jayapura,” he said.
He further said they run out the proper shelters for refugees in Batam. Sekupang Immigration Detention House only has a capacity for 72 people. If they were accommodated in the hotel, there would be not a control facility such as at the Detention House. They are free to come-and-go from the hotel and go around Batam. (Arjuna Pademme/rom)
