Committee : United Nations - General Assembly (UNGA) Topic : "Protection of Maritime Refugees" Country : Republic of Indonesia

Lately, the world has seen a major exodus of refugees due to conflict, human rights violation, or even poverty. With many of these people gambling their lives on sea, some countries offer their help. But sadly, and most commonly, countries refuse to help these refugees and label them illegal immigrants instead. Some countries even went to the extent of bribing pirates/traffickers so that these asylum seekers could be delivered to another country. With hundreds of people dying at sea each month, Indonesia has shifted it's view of the subject from irregular migrant to human rights issue. The Republic of Indonesia has always strongly recognised the basic need of human rights for all, as stated in Chapter X(A) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia and the second point of the national official philosophical foundation, Pancasila.

“2. Kemanusiaan Yang Adil dan Beradab. (2. Just and civilized humanity.)” - Pancasila

“(1) The rights to life, freedom from torture, freedom of thought and conscience, freedom of religion, (...) are all human rights that cannot be limited under any circumstances. (2) Every person shall have the right to be free from discriminative treatment based upon any grounds whatsoever and shall have the right to protection from such discriminative treatment.“ - Article 28(I) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia

To address this issue as a humanitarian cause, and being one of the parties to the Convention on Search and Rescue, Indonesia is currently providing shelters to these asylum seekers and refugees. However, this does not stop the continued effort of bilateral talks and discussion regarding the issue. Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, has held numerous bilateral talks, with namely Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, and Qatar. During her visit to Myanmar on the 21st of May, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi welcomes Myanmar's commitment on solving the Rohingya issue and to foster an inclusive and non-discriminative Rakhine State, by continuing to develop the Kyauk Pyu Special Economic Zone (KPSEZ) as to create more jobs and boost the socioeconomic development in the Rakhine State thus further preventing the irregular movement of migrants from Myanmar. However, the Republic of Indonesia believe that a further acceptance of the Rohingya people to citizenship is also a crucial part on solving the issue.

“8. We recognised the importance of burden sharing and collective responsibility as well as enhanced coordination in continuing our work towards consistent assessment processes including through a set of harmonized arrangements or through the possible establishment of bilateral or regional assessment arrangements, (...) 10 A. a. Fostering political, social and economic conditions to mitigate the underlying factors which make individuals more vulnerable to irregular migration” - Jakarta Declaration on Addressing Irregular Movement of Persons, signed by 13 countries (of which Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Myanmar are parties to).

Despite all the humanitarian interest there's just so much that Indonesia could do. With around 1,759 Rohingya refugees registered and only Rp 2.3 Billion (around US$ 172,000.00) prepared for Social Disaster Fund by the Social Ministry, Indonesia is lacking resources to help all these refugees; not to mention there are still 7,000 Rohingya asylum seeker still stranded at sea with the possibility of finding shelter on Indonesian soil. This is why Indonesia has decided to not

create any kinds of pull factor towards other Rohingya and limit the period of Rohingya refugee settlement to one year, and these refugees are subject to repatriation and resettlement. Indonesia would like to call for greater cooperation from countries that are parties to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees to actually fulfilling the convention's promise and give aid to affected countries. Indonesia also calls the help of international organisations such as the IOM (who has generously donated US$ 26 Million to help the region) and The UN Refugee Agency (in which Indonesia only receives about 4% of the total South-East Asia budget). This is also why Indonesia believe that a direct action taken by the non-governmental organisations are deemed necessary to actually settle down a proper living standards towards these refugees without too much burdening the affected nations.

“Indonesia has given more than it should do as a non-member state of the Refugee Convention." - Foreign Minister of the Republic of Indonesia, H.E. Retno L.P. Marsudi

The Republic of Indonesia therefore sense that the General Assembly should be able to promote the awareness of this particular topic to all member countries, provide a sustainable plan to create a better living of these refugees with the cooperation of all nations (especially the parties of the Refugee Convention), and to create a task force on both the settlement of these refugees and the countries of origin. Republic of Indonesia also strongly urge countries to take a serious action towards the 1951 Convention of Refugees, Jakarta Declaration on Addressing Irregular Movement of Persons, the Bali Process, and other related resolutions; or to refresh these conventions so that it could reflect more of the challenges we face today in the 21st century.

19th June 2015