What Shall We Do With The 'Sunken People'?

For centuries Indonesia has seen the coming and going of countless boats carrying Middle Eastern travelers, traders, scholars and others. Not only was Islam introduced this way, but trade was enhanced and communities were born. Even today marriages between newcomers from the Middle East and Indonesians are common. But recently there has been widespread controversy over a few very simple fishing boats carrying ridiculous numbers of Middle Eastern people on a journey from Indonesian territory across the Indian Ocean for Australian territory. The Indonesian and Australian governments have been attempting to avoid responsibility for these people, sometimes called refugees, sometimes called illegal immigrants. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees seems overtaxed as they attempt to process who is actually a valid asylum seeker, and delays in this process recently resulted in the Jakarta office being stormed by angry Afghanis and Iraqis. The International Organization for Migration is just as busy trying to offer advice, protection and even passage home for those who want it in this increasingly volatile situation. In the following pages TEMPO offers a glimpse into some of the sore points in this complex matter and asks how a solution might be found.