More than 13,000 refugees have been trapped in Indonesia–in some cases for over a decade--as a direct result of Australia's inhumane policies. This petition from RAC (a long standing part of the refugee rights movement) calls on the Albanese government to urgently and unequivocally end Morrison's ban on resettlement of refugees recognised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The pathway to resettlement out of Indonesia has been totally blocked since November 2014, when Immigration Minister Scott Morrison announced that refugees who registered with the UNHCR after 1 July 2014 were no longer eligible for resettlement. This cruel move came 12 months after the Abbott government commenced Operation Sovereign Borders, using the navy to push back asylum seeker boats.

Before 2014, the number of UN-recognised refugees that Australia resettled out of Indonesia was pitifully low. After averaging 50 a year between 2001 and 2009, it rose to around 450 a year between 2010-11 and 2013-14 prior to Morrison’s ban. These derisory resettlement numbers help to explain why during 2001-2014 period, many refugees and asylum seekers took the difficult decision to make the dangerous boat trip to Australian territory--notably Christmas Island and Ashmore Reef. 

Other nations that have signed the UN Refugee Convention regard Indonesia as Australia’s zone of resettlement responsibility. Yet Australia’s policy settings mean that for the past eight years, the UNHCR has been telling the refugees trapped there that their resettlement prospects are zero--and that they should consider a "voluntary" return to the country they fled. 

Most are forced to survive on an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) allowance of around $100 per month. They have no right to work or to access Indonesia’s health or education systems. Rules imposed by the IOM have made visits for to the doctor prohibitively expensive. Those who arrived after March 2018 receive no financial help at all because Australia cut off financial assistance—they live on the streets in complete poverty. 

The majority of the refugees are Hazaras from Afghanistan, and there are also large numbers of Rohingya from Myanmar, and from other countries like Iran and Somalia. Among them are teachers and other professionals who are increasingly without hope.

Self-harm and suicide attempts are at endemic levels. Some have made it to Canada under that country’s relatively generous community sponsorship program, but these success stories are a drop in the ocean. For the entirety of 2021, just 468 refugees were resettled from Indonesia to third countries. At this rate it will take 28 years for all of them to gain resettlement.

Despite these horribly adverse conditions, the refugees in Indonesia have also shown great resilience and creativity. They have set up refugee-run initiatives including learning centres (https://www.raicindonesia.org/education/learning-center/ and see current fundraising drive here: https://chuffed.org/project/refugeeeducation and the Refugees & Asylum Seekers Information Centre (RAIC) https://www.raicindonesia.org/ They also organise ongoing protests acoss the archipelago--outside the UNHRC, as well as Western Embassies and Consulates. 

It’s time to put an end to this protracted limbo and immediately lift the resettlement ban. 

The ALP’s national conference in December 2018 promised to “give appropriate consideration to UNHCR refugee registrations to assist Indonesia and the UNHCR to work through the backlog”. These refugees deserve more than consideration. For far too long, Australia has denied them a future and needs to act urgently. Refugee supporters are determined to fight this injustice.

It was very disappointing that Albanese didn’t make refugee resettlement a priority during his post-election visit to Indonesia. On the contrary, when he visited Makassar, home to many of the refugees, they were locked in and prevented by local police and immigration officers from going out. 

We demand that Labor urgently unequivocally commit to lifting Morrison’s ban and to recommence resettling these UNHCR-recognised refugees in large numbers. Morrison is in the bin. His cruel policies should be too.