Refugees Resettlement: A Review of Indonesian Laws and Practices

Abstract

This study analyzes the legal aspects of resettlement in the context of Indonesian law. First, it discusses the laws related to the interaction between refugees and the Indonesian people. Second, this study discusses how Indonesia applies its national law in the treatment of refugees during their period of resettlement. Third, thisstudy offers a proposal onthe structuring of national policy in terms ofthe treatment of asylum seekers that have received refugee status as they await the process of resettlement. In accordance with these three notions, this study employs a judicial-normative approach to analyze the doctrines and requirements of international law as well as the concepts and opinions of scholars combined with rules within national laws about the refugeeresettlement procedure for a third-party state. By observing refugee camps in Jakarta, Medan, and Kupangin 2016,this paper concludes that national immigration law in Indonesia is heavily embedded within Law No. 6/2011 on immigration and the DirectorGeneral's decision No. IMI-1489.UM.08.06 for 2010 with regard to the handling of illegal immigrants. Furthermore, this study argues for the need to implement regulatory measures on the capacity of Indonesian institutions in handling refugees so that more extensive coordination can be achieved.

The externalization of border control in the global South: The cases of Malaysia and Indonesia

“…By contrast, Indonesia has developed a range of domestic laws and policies that provide partial recognition of refugees within the country. Kneebone et al (2021) documented the competing legal and policy framework and normative struggles around refugee management from a general indifference to the long-term presence of refugees to the continuing tensions between a securitization and humanitarian assistance approach under the 2016 Presidential Regulation Concerning the Treatment of Refugees (see also Afriansyah and Zulfa, 2018). This limited recognition of refugees provides an important backdrop to Indonesia’s ‘inconsistent and ad hoc’ approach to migration control:vacillat[ing] amongst a permissive laissez-faire attitude that allowed thousands of asylum seekers to pass through Indonesia freely; a hasty and heavy-handed use of incarceration in an overcrowded IDC [immigration detention centre] system in keeping with the interests of Australian government funders, and a pragmatic shift to [alternatives to detention].…”

The False Promise of Presidential Regulation No. 125 of 2016?

“…10 Yonesta (2019). 11 Afriansyah & Zulfa (2018). 12 The Constitutions of Vietnam and Timor-Leste, nations also situated in SEA, contain a right to asylum.…”

The Challenges of Global Migration in Perspective of International Humanitarian Law: Reframing the Refugees in Kepulauan Riau, Indonesia

“…Since Indonesia is not a party to the Convention on the Status of Refugees (1951), issues involving them are considered as immigration matters. Furthermore, along with the scope of immigration, the legislation does not totally address the issues of asylum seekers and refugees [1]. However, Indonesia still opens its doors and accepts refugees in a certain period of time to live before being transferred to a third country.…”