Australia’s plan to use Timor Leste as a processing center for foreign refugees would risk illegal migrant flows into Indonesia given the lax controls at the Indonesia-Timor Leste border, an expert and a legislator have said.
Reuters reported Tuesday that Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard held discussions with Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta and the UN about establishing a regional asylum processing center in Timor Leste.
Indonesian Institute of Sciences researcher Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti said Tuesday the plan would risk illegal migrant flows into Indonesia’s border areas because past experience had shown that immigration controls were poorly implemented.
“If you go to the border between Timor Leste and Indonesia, you can see that people can easily pass the border without proper documents,” she said.
Nuke said the mobility of people across the border had to be well managed ahead of Australia’s new asylum policy otherwise it could create bigger problems in the future.
“The presence of foreign refugees in Timor Leste could be source of social conflict among locals. Life is difficult in Timor Leste and hosting refugees would make life even harder. If something unexpected happens in Timor Leste, Indonesia would feel the negative impact as well, especially as immigration control is weak,” she said.
Nuke added the plan to use Timor Leste as a processing center was modeled after the controversial Pacific Solution policy in 2001 under Australia’s then prime minister John Howard.
Under the Pacific Solution, the conservative leader used countries in the Pacific and Indian Oceans to place refugee detention camps in return for economic assistance.
When Labor won elections at the end of 2007 it ended the Pacific Solution and the mandatory detention of asylum seekers, but kept the Christmas Island detention center.
Kemal Azis Stamboel, the chairman of the House of Representatives’ Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs, said that despite the threat of a possible influx of illegal immigrants, legislators did not have the right to comment on plans between Australia and Timor Leste as Timor Leste was no longer on Indonesian territory.
“We have objected to the idea to Australia’s use of certain islands in Indonesia as detention centers. We don’t want another Galang Island,” he said, referring to an island off Sumatra that was used as processing center for Vietnamese refugees during the Vietnam war.
“We expect Australia to use its own territory instead. If Australia wants to find somewhere else and that happens to be a country bordering us, we don’t have a say in this.”
“We have to see how the plan plays out and whether it would negatively impact us,” Kemal said.
Tens of thousands of refugees from conflict-torn countries try to reach Australia every year, but many are intercepted and held in Indonesia. Jakarta has said it would no longer shelter refugees here.
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