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Indonesia allows UNHCR officers to interview Sri Lankan asylum seekers


 Indonesia has given the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officers permission to interview the Australia-bound Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers and collect their data after the authorities allowed them to temporarily disembark their stranded boat. Indonesia Saturday allowed the group of asylum seekers, who were confined for over a week in their stranded boat in Lhoknga Coast in Aceh Province, to come ashore after a tense stand-off. Aceh Immigration Office Head Ahmad Samadan told reporters on Sunday the Tamil asylum seekers were allowed to stay at a military tent pitched 50 meters in from Lhoknga beach, the Jakarta Post said.
Indonesia has given the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officers permission to interview the Australia-bound Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers and collect their data after the authorities allowed them to temporarily disembark their stranded boat. Indonesia Saturday allowed the group of asylum seekers, who were confined for over a week in their stranded boat in Lhoknga Coast in Aceh Province, to come ashore after a tense stand-off. Aceh Immigration Office Head Ahmad Samadan told reporters on Sunday the Tamil asylum seekers were allowed to stay at a military tent pitched 50 meters in from Lhoknga beach, the Jakarta Post said.
           
The official said however, Indonesia will escort the asylum seekers and their Indian-flagged boat back to international waters after the damaged boat has been repaired and Indonesian authorities have given the boat 7 tons of fuel to continue their trip. Meanwhile, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) are still lobbying the Aceh authorities to move the 44 Tamil asylum seekers, consisting of 20 men, 15 women including a pregnant woman and nine children to a detention center in the province.
On Friday, local authorities said the Tamil asylum seekers will not be allowed to disembark in Indonesia. The provincial authorities said the asylum seeker boat will be escorted to the international waters after repairs. Following heavy criticism from rights groups Indonesian authorities have relented and allowed the group to disembark.
Indonesia normally moves asylum seekers intercepted on Indonesian waters to its own detention centers, where their asylum applications are then processed by the UNHCR and IOM. However, there are currently more than 13,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered with the UNHCR in the archipelago, with most of its detention centers at more than overcapacity, Indonesian authorities say.
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