As more Rohingya arrive by boat, Indonesia asks global community to share its burden

Banda Aceh: Indonesia said Tuesday it is appealing to the international community for help after more than 1,500 Rohingya refugees have arrived on its shores by boat since November.

Indonesia once tolerated such landings while Thailand and Malaysia pushed them away. But the growing hostility of some Indonesians toward the Rohingya, who come from refugee camps in Bangladesh, has put pressure on President Joko Widodo’s government to take action.

“We see that the handling of the refugee problem, especially the resettlement issue, has been very slow so far,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Muhammad Iqbal told a news conference in the capital, Jakarta. He urged the international community to “show more responsibility in efforts to resolve the Rohingya refugee problem.” Indonesia, like Thailand and Malaysia, is not a signatory to the U.N.’s 1951 Refugee Convention outlining their legal protections, so is not obligated to accept them. In the past, all have provided at least temporary shelter to refugees in distress. Widodo on Monday said the Indonesian government will still help the refugees temporarily.

“We are still talking to international organizations, such as UNHCR (U.N. refugee agency) ... since the locals don’t accept them,” the president told reporters.