Legislators Slam Government's Reluctance to Help Rohingya
Jakarta. A leading Islamic party has continued to press the Indonesian government to aid hundreds of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh who have been stranded at sea on overcrowded boats for months as authorities in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia continue to thwart their attempts to reach shore.
Mahfudz Siddiq, a member of the Prosperous Justice party (PKS) and chairman of the House of Representatives’ Commission I, which oversees foreign and defense affairs, said on Monday that even though Indonesia was not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees, it still had a moral duty to respond to the plight of the migrants, most of them from the Rohingya ethnic minority who face persecution in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
“The government owes it to humanity to help find a solution,” Mahfudz said.
He added the least the government could do was provide the migrants with food and other supplies so that they could continue their journey elsewhere, and set up proper temporary shelters for the hundreds now on shore in Aceh province after being rescued by local fishermen.
Mahfudz also urged the government to coordinate with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to seek the best solution for the problem, and criticized the government’s statement that the fate of the Rohingya was not Indonesia’s responsibility.
“No public official should make any statement that undermines the value of humanity,” he said.
Fahri Hamzah, the deputy House speaker from the PKS, on Sunday expressed disappointment that some Indonesian officials seemed reluctant to help the Rohingya. He conceded that while Indonesian statutes did not provide a legal basis to handle the unfolding refugee crisis, that was no reason not to help the migrants.
“[Lack of regulation] should not be an excuse to turn a blind eye to the suffering of people from other nations,” Fahri said. “Their suffering is evident. Do we, as a nation that believes in humanity, have the heart to see them suffer?”Another PKS legislator, Sukamta, said last week that Indonesia’s immigration law and international relations law actually addressed the matter of migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers.
He added, though, that the lack of derivative regulations meant there were no technical details for officials to adhere to in addressing actual problems.
“There is no presidential decree yet for those laws. The presidential decree should serve as an operational guideline for how we should treat refugees,” said Sukamta, also from House Commission I.
“We want to make sure that this country, Indonesia, sides with humanity, at least by providing [the refugees] with temporary shelter. The government can do this as long as it has the will to,” he added as quoted by state-run news agency Antara.
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