Toward a New Legal Framework for Settling Rohingya's Refugee Crisis in Indonesia: A Lesson Learned from Aceh Province

摘要

The crisis of Rohingya people has been accumulated both in global and national sphere. Particularly, in northern part of Indonesia (Aceh province), Rohingya people found floating under emergency situation since 2015. Fortunately, local people and local government helps them while the Indonesian government faces a legal constrains as Indonesia is not a party to the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugee. So there is no legal obligation to accept what has been called 'illegal migrants' under Indonesian's immigration law. However, the issuing of Presidential Regulation (Perpres) 125/2016 has flashed out a new hope for Indonesia to play a significant role in settling Rohingya people in Indonesia. Hence this paper examines the understanding and the extent to which the effectiveness of Perpres 125/2016 in dealing with refugees in Indonesia, especially with Rohingya people in Aceh province. Using doctrinal and field study approach, this paper found that the Perpres 125/2016 has been limited in terms of meaning and scope to cover the reality of Rohingya people in Aceh province. The meaning is mostly to cover emergency, political based refugees, handing over the responsibility from central into local government under immigration setting. Therefore this paper suggests some fundamental change of this Perpres 125/2016 to include preventive measures, resettlement and repatriation based on factual reality of Rohingya crisis which is remain uncertain in temporary places in Aceh province. The multi-stakeholders coordination should be taken into account, particularly, International organisation such as UNHCR representatives in Indonesia, government and non-government institutions, as well as local communities.