The Challenges Of Indonesia As A "Quintessential Transit Country" For Refugees: Cases Of Refugees In City Of Pekanbaru

Abstract

Indonesia is one of the Refugee Transit Countries and one of the largest in Asia. This situation also implies that Indonesia has other responsibilities to protect both its citizens and refugees. However, due to its position as a transit country, Indonesia, unlike final destination countries, does not have an obligation to protect refugees entirely. The purpose of this research is to analyze Indonesia's acceptance of refugees and the challenges it faces. The acceptance of refugees as a transit country and not a final destination for refugees will threaten Indonesia's economic, social, security and other sectors. The number of refugees in Indonesia and their continued detention is still increasing. This study utilizes the norm life cycle theory to determine the Indonesian reasons for accepting refugees. It collects information from focus group discussions or an in-depth interview with some of the NGOs in Pekanbaru, and library research, using qualitative method. Indonesia was found to be in the norm emergence stage and going to the norm cascade, although not entirely in the norm cascade phase. Within this theory, altruism and empathy are the dominant motives for the Indonesian reason to accept the refugees. In the case of the city of Pekanbaru, the challenges faced by Indonesia in dealing with refugees are a lack of service to refugees, particularly in terms of empowerment for the refugees, a high number of refugees imbalanced with detention facilities, and a lack of refugee handling due to the limitation of government policy.

Factors Associated with Seeking Afghan Refugees Current Situation in Puspa Argo Camp, Sidoarjo, Indonesia

“…In selected places, Indonesia maintains a detention facility called Rumah Detensi Migrasi run by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights where refugees may have access to basic necessities including housing, protection, and safety. However, given Indonesia's protracted presence, Language problems, skill gaps, jealousy from the local population, and a lack of government regulations regarding the employment of refugees are some of the challenges that refugees must overcome while trying to obtain employment [17].…”

“…This organization determines whether refugees are granted to third-party countries or not. However, Indonesia has Rudenim as a way for refugees to temporarily stay in Indonesia due to incomplete documents, administrative errors, and asylum seekers, according to UNHCR data, 13515 people are seeking asylum in Indonesia as refugees, primarily from Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, and Myanmar [17]. Malaysia offers further examples of refugee self-organization in a refugee hosting nation that resembles Indonesia.…”