Arakan News Agency
The Director-General of the Ministry of Immigration, Justice and Human Rights of Indonesia, Ronny Franky Sompie, denied that there was discrimination in the treatment of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar as opposed to the treatment of refugees from other countries.
This came at a press conference held by Sompie in Mandarin Oriental Jakarta on Tuesday after many complaints were circulated because of differences between dealing with Rohingya refugees and refugees from South Asian countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“The number of Rohingya refugees still living in the Aceh camps and a number of other areas is not small and most of them came to Indonesia in mid-2015,” Sompie said.
Some Rohingya refugees consider their transactions to be very difficult and lengthy, compared to refugees from Pakistan and Afghanistan, in resettling them to a third country, as well as giving any clarification by governments and international organizations about their situation.
In response, Sompie said that the process of determining refugee status and receiving asylum for each individual is different and can not be equal.
He added that the Indonesian Immigration Bureau’s role is only to deal with refugees through the detention center, through registration and monitoring of refugees coming to Indonesia.
