Indonesia’s FM challenges Aust to settle more refugees

Jakarta: Indonesia’s foreign minister has challenged Australia and other countries to pull more weight in dealing with refugees.

As Australia’s Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, arrived in Indonesia yesterday ahead of a people-smuggling, trafficking and transnational crime summit in Bali, Retno Marsudi told Fairfax’s Indonesia correspondent that Australia should do more. Ms Marsudi said Indonesia hosted more than 13,000 thousand refugees and asylum seekers that are waiting to be resettled and took on 2000 more from Bangladesh and Myanmar. She said she hopes Australia will be more receptive to these migrants.

Australia defends its efforts Last September Australia announced it would take an extra 12,000 refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq, in addition to its commitment of 13,750 refugee places for 2015-2016. Ms Bishop said at the time that the intake was the biggest effort from Australia since 1951, when it responded to the postSecond World War emigration from Europe. Australia also currently houses over 1500 asylum seekers and refugees in offshore processing centres in places such as Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island. Those people had attempted to reach the Australian mainland by boat but were picked up by the Australian authorities and sent to the controversial detention centres, at which riots, protests, hunger strikes and two deaths have occurred. RNZI