Jokowi Instructs Mahfud Md to Handle Rohingya Refugees Issue

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – President Joko Widodo or Jokowi stated that he had instructed the Coordinating Minister of Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud Md to handle the issues of Rohingya refugees in Indonesia.

For years, many members of the ethnic Rohingya Muslims, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, have boarded rickety wooden boats to escape to Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia as well as Thailand.

“Yes, I have instructed [Minister Mahfud Md] to handle the issue together with the regional government and the UN refugee agency UNHCR,” he said in a press conference on Monday, December 4, 2023.

Jokowi did not elaborate on this answer. 

Almost 200 Rohingya refugees, most of whom were women and children, arrived by boats in Aceh on Tuesday, November 14, 2023, in Kalee, Gampong Batee, Muara Tiga District, Pidie Regency, Aceh.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lalu Muhammad Iqbal earlier stated that Indonesia was not a party to the 1951 Refugees Convention. The convention obliged its state members to protect refugees entering their territories in accordance with the provisions set out in the convention. Around 146 countries have ratified the Refugees Convention while 147 countries were party to its 1967 Protocol.

“Indonesia has no obligation and capacity to accept refugees, moreover to provide a permanent solution to said refugees,” he said in a brief message on Nov. 16.

Several hundred Rohingya arrived in Aceh earlier this year, and massive numbers have died at sea from disease, hunger, and fatigue. Last year was one of the deadliest in a decade for such refugees, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said.

Citing UNHCR data at the beginning of the year, Indonesia currently housed 12,805 refugees from 51 countries, and 1,000 or 8 percent of them were Rohingya refugees.

DANIEL A. FAJRI | NABIILA AZZAHRA

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