COVID-19 IMPACTS ON IMMIGRATION DETENTION: GLOBAL RESPONSES INDONESIA: QUESTIONING ALTERNATIVES TO DETENTION IN TIME OF PANDEMIC COVID-19 IN INDONESIA Indonesia has been witnessing a steady, if not rapid, increase in COVID-19 cases since March 2020. By mid-September, the additional number of cases reached an all-time high, hovering above 3,800 new cases daily. Indonesia’s struggle with COVID-19 has been criticized due to the low rate of testing and lack of contact tracing, raising suspicions of under-reported cases and contagions.1 The inadequacy in testing and contact tracing is combined with a relatively low number of healthcare facilities and professionals. 2 As of September 2020, COVID-19 patients are filling up 80% of Jakarta’s hospital beds and, with the current rate, will possibly exceed the city’s capacity. 3 On the other hand, the government has been swaying in implementing preventive policies due to their adverse economic impact. After implementing large-scale social distancing (Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar/PSBB) to contain the virus’ spread at the end of March, the government introduced the ‘New Normal’ policies to return activities back to as much as they were before the pandemic.4 However, on 14 September 2020, a surge of cases after the ‘New Normal’ implementation pushed the Jakarta municipal government to close the city back into a lockdown. 5 IMMIGRATION POLICIES DURING COVID-19 Since Indonesia enacted a COVID-19 emergency in March 2020, the immigration authority has been taking special measures to curb, monitor, and control people’s movements across the border. The earliest COVID-19 related measure can be traced back to early February where the Director General of Immigration circulated a direction to limit the visa issuance for visitors from COVID-19 impacted regions.6 The Immigration Directorate gradually adjusted their policies in congruity with the national direction. The Immigration Directorate’s COVID-19 concerns not only lie with the movement of people but also the immigration detention centers under their purview. Overall, Indonesia has acknowledged the risks within detention facilities and went as far as releasing tens of thousands of petty crime offenders to avoid the risk of contagion in prison. 7 However, little is publicly known about specific policies related to COVID-19 and immigration detention centers. In the case of refugees and asylum seekers, immigration detention has been relatively less of a concern. The campaign on alternatives to immigration detention for asylum seekers gained traction in Indonesia by 2017. 8 The Director General of Immigration further reaffirmed this direction by guiding detention centers to divert refugees to temporary shelters allocated by local governments.9 Over the years, Indonesia has been observing a lower number of asylum seekers and refugees in detention centres. As of June 2020, less than one percent (eight people) of the overall refugee population in Indonesia remain detained.10 It should be noted that while the number of asylum seekers and refugees in immigration detention centers is fairly low, SUAKA received several reports of asylum seekers being held at the international zone in Soekarno-Hatta international airport.11 ALTERNATIVE TO DETENTION AND ASYLUM SEEKERS During the pandemic, the Indonesian government, International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR are confronted with the reality that living conditions in the alternatives to detention are still far from adequate. The decision to confine refugees in temporary shelters potentially holds imminent COVID-19 risks. One of the most recent examples can be found in the local government’s shelter for asylum seekers and refugees in Aceh and Kalideres. Upon their arrival in Aceh early September, Rohingya asylum seekers were directed to a temporary shelter managed by the Aceh local government.12 The vocational training center in Lhokseumawe sheltered around three hundred people, three times its actual capacity. Regarding COVID-19 concerns, IOM assisted the local government to provide rapid tests for the arrivals.13 However, by 13 September 2020, three Rohingya refugees died due to respiratory illness before swab tests were administered.14 Refugees in the Kalideres shelter are facing similar limitations during the pandemic. The supposedly temporary facility has been housing around 200 refugees since last year.15 The scarcity of clean water and space has rendered them helpless in fulfilling even the basic prevention measures: washing hands and physical distancing.16 1 https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/08/25/contact-tracing-the-missing-link-in-indonesias-battle-with-covid-19.html; https://www.reuters.com/article/ us-health-coronavirus-indonesia-hospital/indonesias-chronic-testing-lag-undermines-fight-against-covid-19-idUSKBN22Q28C; https://www.aljazeera.com/ news/2020/09/bali-covid-19-surge-blamed-inaccurate-rapid-tests-visitors-200907052734606.html 2 World Health Organization (2017). The Republic of Indonesia Health System Review. Health systems in transition. Vol-7, Number -1 3 https://asiatimes.com/2020/09/indonesia-on-verge-of-a-deadly-covid-disaster/ 4 https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/05/16/lets-coexist-with-covid-19-jokowi-calls-on-residents-to-adapt-to-new-normal.html 5 https://jakartaglobe.id/news/jakarta-sets-new-record-in-number-of-covid19-cases-as-new-restrictions-announced 6 Directorate General of Immigration instruction no. IMI-0954.GR.01.01, 5 February 2020 7 https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesia-releases-30000-prisoners-as-covid19-cases-double-in-a-week 8 UNHCR (2014). Beyond detention: a global strategy to support governments to end the detention of asylum-seekers and refugees; Missbach, A. (2017). Accommodating Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Indonesia: From Immigration Detention to Containment in “Alternatives to Detention”. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 33(2), 32-44. 9 Directorate General of Immigration instruction no. IMI-UM.01.01-2827, 30 July 2018 10 30 people (June 2019) eight people (June 2020), UNHCR Indonesia Monthly Data 11 SUAKA received two reports in 2020 from people of Jordan and Syria origin that directly referred to and handled by UNHCR. 12 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/09/300-rohingya-ashore-aceh-months-sea-200907051150987.html 13 https://reliefweb.int/report/indonesia/largest-rohingya-group-arrive-indonesia-2015-receives-support-north-aceh 14 More Rohingya refugees in Aceh die of respiratory illness https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2020/09/13/more-rohingya-refugees-die-of-respiratory-illness. html 15 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/13/its-impossible-to-do-anything-indonesias-refugees-in-limbo-as-money-runs-out 16 https://www.antaranews.com/berita/1631018/pengungsi-asing-di-kalideres-sulit-terapkan-protokol-kesehatan idcoalition.org | westernsydney.edu.au/hadri 29