Indonesia Neglects Fate of Migrant Children, Rights Group Claims

Illegal migrants from Burma stand at the gate of an immigration detention center in Medan in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province on April 5, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Roni Bintang)

JAKARTA — A rights group on Monday criticized Indonesia over its treatment of children who are migrants or seeking asylum, saying they are placed in abysmal conditions with no way of appealing their detention.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report that Indonesia has detained hundreds of migrant and asylum-seeking children each year without giving them a way to challenge their detention. The country lacks asylum laws and allows immigrants to be detained for up to 10 years.

“Hundreds are detained in sordid conditions, without access to lawyers, and sometimes beaten. Others are left to fend for themselves, without any assistance with food or shelter,†the report said.

The group said there are almost 2,000 asylum-seeking and refugee children in Indonesia as of March, and that more than 1,000 arrived in 2012. They are fleeing persecution, violence, and poverty in Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma and elsewhere.

The report was based on interviews with more than 100 migrants, including children as young as 5, as well as Indonesian officials and staff members of non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations.

It said adults and children described abuse by guards or other detainees, including being kicked, punched, beaten with sticks, burned with cigarettes and subject to electric shocks.

Ida Bagus Adnyana, director of investigation and enforcement at the immigration office, denied the allegations.

“These are not true, that is made up. We regularly remind our officers about human rights,†Adnyana said. “I am the first official to be fired if these happened.â€

He said migrant children are staying with their parents while those without parents are sheltered separately from adults.

“Even some of them are staying outside detention centers with adoptive parents,†he added.

Alice Farmer, the group’s children’s rights researcher, said migrant and asylum-seeking children risk life and limb to flee their countries.

“Migrant children in Indonesia are trapped in a prolonged waiting game with no certain outcome,†Farmer said. “Desperate children will keep coming to Indonesia, and the government should step up to give them decent care.â€

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelagic nation with thousands of islands and miles of unpatrolled coastline, is a key transit point for smuggling migrants.

Hundreds of asylum-seekers from war-ravaged countries have died in sea accidents on the hazardous sea journey from Indonesia to Australia.