March 03, 2012
The National Commission of Human Rights called on the Justice and Human Rights Ministry on Friday to conduct an internal evaluation of the Immigration Directorate General after the brutal death of an asylum seeker from Afghanistan.
“The Justice and Human Rights Ministry has to be responsible for this since asylum seekers and refugees waiting for placement are under their protection,” said Ifdhal Kasim, the chairman of the commission known as Komnas HAM.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR said it was “deeply saddened” by the death and issued a news release on Friday urging an investigation of the killing.
“We call on the Indonesian authorities to conduct a swift and thorough investigation that will shed light on this incident,” the statement read.
Ageng Pribadi, the head of the immigration detention center in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, said he was “shocked” to learn of the finding of a lifeless 28-year-old Taqi Naroye in his immigration detention center earlier this week.
Naroye and five other Afghan asylum seekers reportedly tried to escape from the center on Sunday night but were caught by local residents and returned to the detention center the next evening.
“It was 9:30 p.m. when I oversaw my men putting him in an isolation chamber and I instructed them to stay away from him,” Ageng said.
He said he went straight to bed afterward. Ageng lives just behind the detention center.
“I always briefed my men to treat the detainees as their friends. I want no violence under my watch,” he said.
“Even so, they fought with each other a lot.”
He said the guards claimed the detainees were arrogant and liked to threaten the guards.
“Naroye once told the guards that, ‘There are 30 of you and 50 of us. If we escape, what can you do?’ When he was brought back by the guards, I guess what they wanted was to punish him,” Ageng said.
The guards told investigators that Naroye was beaten by an angry mob, but police disagree.
“It was not caused by a mob at t ack but the guards who abused the victim until he died,” Pontianak crime unit chief Comr. Pu ji Prayitno told local news portal Harian Equator on Wednesday.
Police have determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma, ABC News reported.
Two of the four guards working the night shift during Naroye’s beating have been taken in for questioning by local investigators. Police have not named a suspect.
Abuses within the immigration detention center have usually gone unnoticed until news of escapes or even deaths reached the public.
“Public access to the center is limited,” said Elfansuri Chairah, who heads Komnas HAM’s research department for international laws and regulations.
“If we were not Komnas HAM, we probably would also have difficulty getting access to the facility,” he added.
Previous requests by the Jakarta Globe to visit the immigration detention center in Kalideres, West Jakarta, were ignored.
Elfansuri and his team found that officers in the field always claimed to have been given no certain standard operating procedures for dealing with the stream of migrants.
“Our detention centers look like prison cells,” Elfansuri said. “Those who are fleeing from persecution are now faced with a reality where they are being treated like criminals. This is very depressing.”
The frustrating conditions, he added, led some to attempt escape and even suicide.
Ravindra, a Tamil refugee, described his detention in Bandar Lampung.
“On our first day we were slapped and punched in our stomachs by immigration officers,” he said.
The Kalimantan center was recently renovated with funds from the International Organization for Migration.
(also x the JG)
za 3 maa 2012 - 20:40