UN presses for access to migrants after Indonesia boat standoff ‎

The United Nations refugee agency on Monday called for access to a group of migrants believed to be from Sri Lanka, following a week-long standoff that saw their boat stranded off the coast of Indonesia.  The boat carrying the 44 migrants, including women and children, was reportedly en route to Australia and had drifted into Indonesian waters near northern Aceh province on June 11 after encountering engine trouble, Thomson Reuters Foundation reported. 

Local officials had initially stopped the migrants from disembarking and said it must sail on, but then allowed them ashore over the weekend amid criticism from refugee advocacy groups.  However, UNHCR in Indonesia said that since the incident, it had not been granted access to the group to determine their status. UNHCR's Indonesia representative Thomas Vargas said they been given no reason for the lack of access, but he declined to comment when asked if it signalled Indonesia might start pushing back asylum-seekers' boats, like neighbouring Australia.

Indonesia is not a signatory to the U.N.'s refugee convention, but it has in the past allowed migrants ashore on humanitarian grounds.  UNHCR's Indonesia representative Thomas Vargas said it has been the practice of the government to allow these people on such boats to disembark and for UNHCR to have access.  He hoped this tradition  would continue.

Indonesia and Malaysia took in thousands of migrants who were found adrift in the Andaman Sea in the Asian migrant crisis last year, following a Thai crackdown on human trafficking. Indonesia is a popular transit point for asylum-seekers and migrants from the Middle East and South Asia hoping to reach Australia, often traveling in rickety boats.  The country currently has about 13,000 refugees and asylum seekers, mainly from Afghanistan, Myanmar and Somalia, according to UNHCR.  (Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation)