Papers

• Good Relationships with Locals Realisa Masardi University of Amsterdam

  Through a multi-sited ethnography in Jakarta, Bogor, Medan, and Pekanbaru, Realisa Masardi discusses strategies and tactics of independent refugee youths while living in Indonesia. Her research problematizes politics of age and vulnerability, and highlights youths’ agentic action and self-representation facing the international refugee regime as well as Indonesian local systems. In the conference, Realisa will present part of her dissertation chapter about children and youths’ strategies to build good relationships with Indonesian locals.

• Problems and Challenges of Rohingya Asylum Seekers in Medan City Indonesia in the Aftermath of Presidential Regulation No. 125, 2016 Heru Susetyo University of Indonesia

  Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention. The best the country provides is the right to stay temporarily and register with the UNHCR until resettlement can be processed. In 2016, Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, signed a decree recognising the status of asylum seekers and refugees, and the country will no longer label them as illegal immigrants. The presidential decree also set forth a policy to allow for more local refugee shelters to be set up. Refugees already in Indonesia are in an awkward limbo. The UNHCR began informing refugees that resettlement to a third country is becoming less likely and that they must try their best to assimilate into Indonesian society. But Indonesian officials insist permanent residency is not an option. Indonesia views itself only as a transit country for refugees, not a final destination. If asylum seekers and refugees are to assimilate into Indonesian society rather than being forced to return to their home countries, Indonesia must find solutions. Indonesia’s 265 million people make it the world's fourth most populous nation and there are around 28 million Indonesians living below the poverty line, with education, health and housing a priority. In South-east Asia, only Cambodia, the Philippines and Timor-Leste have signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, which enshrines fundamental human rights for migrants and displaced people.

  Although Indonesia has not, it does have a long tradition of offering protection to refugees, who in the past have used it as a transit country. Vietnam and Cambodia Refugees. Boat People used to live in Indonesia’s Galang Island from 1979-1996, following the war in Vietnam and Cambodia. Yet, after Australia began tightening rules for asylum-seekers a few years ago, many asylum seekers in Indonesia could hope only for return home or official resettlement. With these options now unlikely for many, refugees in Indonesia - mainly from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Somalia and Iraq - have been left stateless and rely on aid agencies to survive. Many live on a small monthly handout from the IOM or relatives to pay for food and clothing. The IOM also provides essential services, such as healthcare, accommodation and training.

  Life is monotonous for many refugees in Indonesia. Some have lived in the country for up to a decade, unable to move freely. While Indonesia's refugees mainly live peacefully alongside local people, often in cramped, cheap apartments, rooming houses or detention centres, there have been flashpoints of conflict. Some Indonesians, for instance, had wrongly believed their new guests were getting free government handouts. This research, therefore, is trying to depict the problems and challenges faced by transit migrants in Indonesia, particularly Rohingya asylum seekers from Myanmar who have temporarily stayed in Medan City for quite a long time, and whether they have alternatives and other opportunities to obtain their rights in the aftermath of the enactment of Presidential Regulation No. 15/ 2016 on Treatment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers.

• Refugees in Indonesia: Comprehensive Discussions on Perception, Reception, and Coping Mechanisms Nur Isdah Idris University of Amsterdam

  Indonesia has traditionally been a popular country of transit for the thousands of refugees passing through on their journey to reach Australia or other countries of resettlement. In November 2014, Australia announced that refugees registered after 1 July 2014 in Indonesia would be ineligible for resettlement to Australia. Approximately 14,000 refugees are currently ‘stuck’ in Indonesia, unable to return to their countries of origin, integrate locally in Indonesia, nor move on to resettle to a third country. As a result of declining opportunities for refugees’ resettlement, Indonesia has been forced to transform from being a country of transit to a country of containment.

  This panel will address the phenomenon of refugees ‘stuck’ in Indonesia from three different approaches: multi-sited ethnography, individuals’ life stories, and Discourse Historical Approach (DHA). Together, these three papers offer a comprehensive study on refugees living in Indonesia, a country strategically situated on emerging refugees’ migratory trajectory in the Asia Pacific region. They offer important insights into the variety of living experiences that refugees face in detention centres, shelters, and self-funded accommodations located in different urban settings across the archipelago. This panel will contribute to an understanding of how international refugee regimes are domesticated, particularly in the context of Indonesia, a country that continues to abstain from signing the 1951 Convention of Refugee Protection and its 1967 Protocol. Moreover, it furthers a better understanding of movement, stuck-ness, and temporality as experienced by refugees currently living in the Global South.

Abstract

Keywords

• Borderlands
• Indonesia
• Migration