海角大神

Sangita Bashardost lives with her parents and four siblings at a resort in the mountains south of Jakarta. They have a television set, a portable computer, and a yard with a swing for her younger brothers. They pass the days drinking tea and chatting with neighbors, but the days are less idyllic than the setting.

After years of hoping for asylum in Australia following a short stay in Indonesia, this Afghan refugee family and 1,000 to 2,000 others in Cisarua suddenly risk being rounded up and pressured into returning home.

鈥淸Indonesian] immigration is saying we can鈥檛 stay in Cisarua, so where to go now? It鈥檚 very dangerous,鈥� Sangita, 16, says as her mother looks at the ground on their open-air balcony and her father sits silently behind them.

Her family has been rejected for United Nations asylum, which would guarantee a permanent stay outside Afghanistan. Then they learned Australia is no longer taking people without visas as it did until last year. Now Indonesian authorities say refugees, particularly young men, are angering locals in Cisarua by making sexual advances on Indonesian women.

The tipping point came when Indonesian officials told the International Organization for Migration (IOM) about six months ago to move its 400 sponsored asylum-seeking families out of Cisarua to head off further friction with locals. That order has drawn Indonesia鈥檚 attention to people not on the organization鈥檚 roster.听

鈥淚t will become more clear that these people are not under IOM care and weren鈥檛 supposed to be there anyway,鈥� says Denis Nihill, chief of the organization鈥檚 Indonesia mission. 鈥淭here were large numbers who were creating tensions in the local community. Local people would go [complain] to the governor鈥檚 offices and local governors to Jakarta.鈥�

Indonesia鈥檚 immigration听department听was adding up the illegal population in Cisarua in October and will try to deport them,听says听Junita Sitorus, assistant to the department鈥檚 public relations manager. 鈥淏efore they are deported they will be detained,鈥� Ms. Sitorus听says, declining to give听details.

Risky alternatives

The alternative to a crowded and possibly dirty, uncomfortable detention center is returning to dangerous conditions in Afghanistan, Iran, or Iraq.

Ms. Bashardost鈥檚 family stays at Ubersam Cottage, a spacious mountain resort almost all occupied by refugees, because they were rejected for UN refugee status. They fear a return to their native Afghanistan, where her father served in a pre-Taliban government and is worried about retaliation.

The IOM had supported the family, his daughter said, but in October they received notice of an end to their $125 monthly stipend plus lodging costs.

They paid more than $5,000 per head two years ago for passage to Indonesia, known for loosely patrolled shorelines, and applied for asylum. The United Nations declined the request. 鈥淎fghanistan has been in a 20-year war,鈥� Bashardost says. 鈥淗ow can the UN Refugee Agency not know about our country?鈥�

Her family did not sail illegally for Australia since Canberra has posted signs around Cisarua warning it won鈥檛 resettle people without visas. Nine of her Afghan neighbors were among 14 who survived in April when their boat carrying 72 refugees capsized en route to Australia.

Cooperation with Australia?

Australia鈥檚 tougher policy is expected to reduce trips听on makeshift vessels from听Indonesia鈥檚听Java to听Australia鈥檚听nearby Christmas Island. Australia had received more than 13,000 refugees a year from 2007 to 2011 after听the former Labor government relaxed immigration policies. Australia got stricter this year amid popular demand and rising costs of resettling migrants.听

Indonesia warned Australia against forcible return of boats and paying听informants, acts that it says could violate its sovereignty. But the country may quietly cooperate.

鈥淎s Indonesia鈥檚 shores are not nearly as tightly guarded as Australia鈥檚,听I suspect Indonesia will increase its border patrols in an effort of turning more boats back at sea,鈥澨齭ays Brian Sheley, managing director of Cascade Asia Advisors, a risk assessment firm focused on Southeast Asia.

Some refugees will still try to outfox both countries, he adds. 鈥淚n the interim, all solutions Australia and Indonesia can concoct are insufficient so long as Afghan officials are not part of the solution,鈥� Mr. Sheley says.听

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says 5.7 million Afghans have returned home听over the past 10 years. Afghan authorities discourage fleeing the country and offer no guarantees to those who go back.

Long processing times

Refugees stuck in Cisarua blame the UN for their dilemma, citing long processing times and inexplicable rejections. The High Commissioner had accepted 2,373 refugees听in Indonesia听as of听Sept. 30, making them eligible for long-term residency in Indonesia with听charity aid. The agency does not publicize numbers of rejections.

An听accumulated听11,000 refugees and asylum seekers had applied听as of August, compared to 7,945听for all of 2012, according to UN statistics.听Many of the 50 to 60 Ubersam Cottage tenants, mainly Afghans and Iranians with disputes against their governments, have been rejected.

The UN agency听says听applications take time because of听the overall caseload size. Rejection letters provided by refugee seekers cite poor proof of persecution in their homelands. 听听

鈥淭his is life, not a game,鈥� says rejected applicant Mohammad Haghighat, an Iranian who fled three years ago after he publicly abandoned the official religion Islam and the government suspended the magazine he was running. 鈥淚f I go back to Iran, then they鈥檒l kill me or put me in jail.鈥�