Disparities in the Issuance of Refugee Cards by the UNHCR in Indonesia: Vulnerability and Risk Mitigation

M. Alvi Syahrin, Alrin Tambunan, Devina Yuka Utami, Tony Mirwanto, Koesmoyo Ponco Aji, Anindito Rizki Wiraputra, M. Arief Hamdi, Rita Kusuma Astuti, Ajeep Akbar Qolby, Dewa Gian

Politeknik Pengayoman Indonesia, Directorate General of Immigration Indonesia

As a non-signatory to the Convention, Indonesia does not conduct protection assessments, nor does it offer a pathway for refugees to achieve permanent residency there. Many asylum seekers are involved in criminal acts, such as human trafficking, due to the long wait from asylum seeker status to the process of granting refugee cards by UNHCR. The modus operandi of foreign nationals tends to exploit the ease of UNHCR document processing in Indonesia. The author's initial suspicion, that there is a significant inconsistency in the granting of refugee cards by UNHCR, is a problem that can be focused on research on how refugee status is granted to asylum seekers. Therefore, the author then builds an initial suspicion, that there are obstacles to transparency in the mechanism for granting refugee cards to asylum seekers by UNHCR. This type of research is empirical normative legal research. Data collection techniques used are observation, documentation, and interviews. The results of this study are seen that the disparity in the process of granting refugee cards by UNHCR is due to the lack of transparency and involvement of other parties in determining refugee status by UNHCR, as well as the lack of accountability and openness and clarity of data coordination between the process of determining refugee status by UNHCR and Immigration. And the mitigation steps that must be taken by UNHCR and Immigration in reducing the disparity as a form of legal certainty is by compiling and improving the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Indonesia and UNHCR in 2019 in order to support the ease of rapid information exchange and a clear coordination model between UNHCR and Immigration, as well as changes to Presidential Regulation Number 125 of 2016 concerning the Handling of Refugees from Abroad in order to accommodate the introduction of the determination of refugee status and accommodate more detailed coordination functions in determining refugee status and faster data exchange in the context of immigration supervision.

Article link: https://www.asianinstituteofresearch.org/JSParchives/disparities-in-the-issuance-of-refugee-cards-by-the-unhcr-in-indonesia%3A-vulnerability-and-risk-mitigation