Pengungsi Afghanistan Gelar Demo di Depan UNHCR Jakarta
Afghans in Indonesia Protest Taliban, Demand Resettlement
Editor : Kemal A Praghotsa
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
Selasa, 24 Agustus 2021
GELAR AKSI: Spanduk-spanduk yang dipakai oleh para pengunjuk rasa, di antaranya bertuliskan "Afghanistan Tidak Aman" dan "Mukimkan kembali Pengungsi Afghanistan dari Indonesia. [Foto: Associated Press]

RATUSAN PENGUNGSI asal Afghanistan yang tinggal di Indonesia, yang sebagian besar etnis Hazara, memprotes pengambilalihan Taliban atas negara asal mereka dan meminta pemukiman kembali di negara-negara ketiga, pada Selasa [24/2].

Para pengunjuk rasa berkumpul di depan Kantor Badan Pengungsi PBB [UNHCR] di Jakarta. Sebagian besar dari mereka mengatakan bahwa mereka sangat khawatir dengan keluarganya di Afghanistan. 

Kebanyakan etnis Hazara menganut Muslim Syiah, membuatnya dibenci oleh radikal Muslim Sunni dan kerap didiskriminasi di negara berpenduduk mayoritas  Sunni.

"Semua orang ketakutan karena situasi saat ini dan berusaha mati-matian untuk melarikan diri," kata salah satu pengunjuk rasa, Hakmat Ziraki kepada Associated Press.

Ziraki mengatakan kerabatnya, yang tidak tahan bertahun-tahun hidup tanpa pekerjaan, membuatnya kembali ke Afghanistan. Kemudian, dia menerima teks dari saudara perempuannya, mengatakan bahwa dia putus asa dan semua orang di desa telah mengirim anak perempuannya ke luar negeri.

"Menunggu lebih dari delapan tahun tanpa pemukiman kembali benar-benar mengerikan," katanya.

Spanduk-spanduk yang dipakai oleh para pengunjuk rasa, di antaranya bertuliskan "Afghanistan Tidak Aman" dan "Mukimkan kembali Pengungsi Afghanistan dari Indonesia.

Para pejabat UNCHR tidak dapat segera dihubungi untuk dimintai komentar.

Para pengunjuk rasa bubar setelah beberapa jam menggelar aksi protes mereka. Hal itu disebabkan oleh polisi yang mengancam akan menangkap mereka karena melanggar protokol kesehatan terkait pandemi Covid-19 di Indonesia, seperti dikutip Associated Press yang dilansir MailOnline.

Indonesia bukan penandatangan Konvensi PBB tahun 1951 dan Protokol 1967, dan pemerintah tidak mengizinkan pencari suaka untuk bekerja atau memiliki akses ke sekolah dan rumah sakit umum.


HUNDREDS of AFGHAN refugees living in Indonesia, mostly members of the Hazara ethnic minority, held a rally on Tuesday decrying the Taliban´s takeover of their country and calling for resettlement in third countries.

Indonesia is not a signatory to the U.N. Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol, and the government doesn´t allow asylum seekers to work or have access to schools and public hospitals.

The protesters took to the streets outside the U.N. refugee agency´s office in the capital, Jakarta, with many saying they´re extremely worried about their families back home. Most Hazaras are Shiite Muslims, despised by Sunni Muslim radicals and discriminated against by many in the Sunni majority country.

"Everyone is scared due to the current situation and are desperately trying to escape," said 28-year-old protester Hakmat Ziraki.

Ziraki said his relatives, unable to bear years of living in limbo without jobs, eventually returned to Afghanistan. On Friday, he received a text message from his sister, saying she was distraught and that everyone in their village had sent their young daughters out of the country.

Banners at Tuesday´s rally read "Afghanistan is not safe" and "Resettle Afghan refugees from Indonesia."

"Waiting for more than eight years without resettlement has been absolutely terrible," Ziraki said.

Officials with the U.N. refugee agency in Jakarta could not immediately be reached for comment.

The protesters dispersed after a few hours, as police threatened to arrest them for violating a health state of emergency in Jakarta, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus.

Afghans accounted for a little more than half the 13,400 refugees in Indonesia, according to U.N. figures from April.

Many asylum seekers fled to Indonesia as a jumping-off point to reach Australia by boat. But since 2013, the Australian government has sent the often barely seaworthy vessels back to Indonesian waters.
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