Indonesian Navy sends Rohingya boat people back to sea – Thailand rethinks discriminatory refugee policy

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) criticizes the Indonesian navy for rejecting a refugee boat with 500 Rohingya boat people from Burma and for forcing it back into the open sea. "What the Indonesian navy did here is bizarre, inhumane and a violation of the basic principles of international humanitarian law. This is a disgrace for Indonesia's democracy and its human rights policy ", said Ulrich Delius, the STP's Asia-consultant, in Göttingen on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the Indonesian Navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir conceded that four naval units had forced a refugee boat back into the open sea, reasoning that the ship was apparently headed to Malaysia. He asserted that the crowd standing on the boat had been given food, water, medicine and fuel. "On average, such a journey takes about 40 days. To send a fully occupied boat back like that is cruel and irresponsible! There's no justification," said Delius. "The Marine spokesman's reasoning that the boat was headed to another port is threadbare. The ASEAN-states must stand together. It is their responsibility to provide refuge for victims of persecution and exclusion in Burma."

While Indonesia's Navy is unable or unwilling to cope with the mass exodus of the Rohingya, there is at least a public debate going on in Thailand about how to treat the refugees. There are more and more Rohingya arriving in Thailand. On Tuesday, the Chief of the national police, Somyot Pumpunmuang, publicly demanded new refugee camps for the Rohingya in order to at least provide basic care and to register them. "It would be an important step if the Rohingya who are living in Thailand illegally were to be recognized as refugees under the Geneva Convention and to grant them shelter. Above all, this would be a first measure to curb human trafficking, since the traffickers benefit from the fact that the Rohingya are treated as illegal immigrants," said Delius. However, critics fear that the establishment of refugee camps might fuel the exodus.

So far, the Thai authorities have not yet admitted that the refugee crisis is a matter of national concern. In Thailand, Rohingya refugees are thus often arbitrarily detained in police stations, and there is no official entity to keep track of their actual number or to provide basic necessities.

Header Photo:  Flickr/European Commission DG