Somali Refugees

Somali Children thanking our children for delivering some food.

Somali refugees make up about 9% of the 14,000 asylum seekers and refugees living in Indonesia.  Indonesia serves as a stopping point for refugees hoping to be resettled in Australia or elsewhere because refugees have found that the government generally allows them to stay and await resettlement.  However, with an economy that struggles to support its own people, Indonesia does not have the ability to provide for even the basics of food and shelter for the refugees who have made it to Indonesia to seek asylum.  Additionally, refugees are denied the right to work due to the fears that refugees will take jobs away from Indonesians, who already face difficult living and working conditions, with a minimum wage equal to only about $250 per month for full time.  Since refugees are not allowed to work and are denied access to education and the Indonesian government does not have the ability to provide adequately for the refugees, they are left in a very difficult position.  Many of the Somali refugees live in boarding houses, which are only ever temporary.  Many are homeless and living on the street.  Those who do have homes, are living in conditions most of us cannot fathom.  Even under these oppressing circumstances, a vast majority of refugees maintain that they are grateful to be in Indonesia and have the relative safety, considering the violence and fear that they fled from.

The Somali refugees fled from their country to escape the terror and horrible violence of an Islamic extremist group called al-Shabab.  Somalia has not had an effective government in 20 years and militant groups such as al-Shabab have filled that vacuum.  Al-Shabab enforces its version of strict Sharia law on the people including death by stoning for adultery and amputation of hands for thieves.  Somalia additionally has suffered through famine and drought, making a desperate situation even more desperate.  The Somali refugees in Indonesia relate stories of rape, mutilation, violence and desperation that pushed them to flee their homeland and seek refuge elsewhere, eventually ending up in Indonesia.

You can read the stories of 3 of the Somali Refugees here.