Thousands of refugees in Indonesia have spent years awaiting resettlement. Their future is unclear

By DITA ALANGKARA and EDNA TARIGAN
Associated Press

TANJUNGPINANG, Indonesia (AP) — Hundreds of refugees are living in community housing on an island in northwestern Indonesia while waiting for resettlement in a third country. Hotel Kolekta, a former tourist hotel there, was converted in 2015 into a temporary shelter that today houses 228 refugees from conflict-torn nations including Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan and elsewhere. Indonesia, despite having a long history of accepting refugees, is not a signatory to the U.N. Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol, and the government does not allow refugees and asylum-seekers to work. Many had fled to the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago as a jumping-off point hoping to eventually reach Australia by boat, but are now stuck in what feels like an endless limbo.