About a quarter of East Timorese exiles in Portugal who return to their native shores decide to come back to the European country after seeing conditions in Timor, a Portuguese NGO has

Lyall Johnson – As East Timor celebrated its nationhood yesterday, 1600 East Timorese asylum seekers living in Australia faced an anxious wait to see if they could remain in the country

Jakarta – East Nusa Tenggara Military district chief Col.

The United Nations Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) asked the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) administration on Thursday to protect East Timorese students studying in Kupang from intimida

Banda Aceh – At least 153 refugees from Central and South Aceh were forced to leave the United Nations Resource Center (UNRC) compound in Banda Aceh, four days after they fled their hom

John Martinkus, Kupang – On the outskirts of the West Timorese capital, Kupang, a dusty former bus terminal still serves as the home for some of the estimated 60,000 East Timorese refug

Don Greenlees, Dili – Francisco Alves voted in favour of East Timor remaining a part of Indonesia in the 1999 referendum on independence.

Chris McCall at Mota Ain, the Timor border – Torn between tears and smiles, the refugees line up with all their worldly goods and wait to go home. Some are even bringing their dead.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – The more than 140,000 East Timorese refugees living in West Timor can not return home till March 20 at the earliest due to transportation problems.

Dili – Nearly 2,000 refugees have already returned to East Timor from refugee camps in West Timor, Indonesia, during the first five days of this month, UN refugee officials said today.

Atambua – East Timor independence hero Xanana Gusmao on Thursday urged East Timorese refugees in Indonesia's West Timor to come home now, saying he guaranteed their safety.

Yemris Fointuna, Dili – East Timorese residents want their compatriots – including former anti-independence militiamen – currently sheltering at refugee camps in East Nusa Tenggara to r

Prangtip Daorueng, Jakarta – Two months after the Indonesian government put an end to humanitarian assistance to East Timorese refugees living in West Timor, these displaced people are

Jakarta – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported a rise in the number of refugees returning to East Timor from camps in West Timor, Indonesia, a report said

Jill Jolliffe – From the other side of the cyclone wire fence, a man with a large scorpion tattooed on his face peers into East Timor.

Fairus Husaini, Dili – The UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration have ass

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Udayana Military Commander Maj. Gen. Wellem T.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Thousands of East Timorese refugees have begun to use violence and terror against local villagers in a bid to survive in East Nusa Tenggara province following

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Around 128,000 East Timorese people staying in numerous refugee camps in East Nusa Tenggara Province are facing starvation as their food supply is nearly exhau

Nusa Dua – Tens of thousands of East Timorese refugees who are still reluctant to return are testing the patience of their compatriots back home, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta has s

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – The government has extended its deadline for 128,000 (sic) Timorese to vacate refugee camps in West Timor until June 20, allowing them more time to decide on t

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Possible clashes are looming between East Timorese refugees and Indonesian farmers seeking to reclaim land used to accommodate the refugees on the border of We

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Despite the cancellation of humanitarian assistance as of January 1, 2002, the remaining 128,000 or so East Timorese people taking refuge in West Timor has bec

Jakarta – Economic factors and not intimidation are now the main reason why many East Timorese refugees are reluctant to go home from Indonesia, the UN refugee agency said Monday.

Jakarta – Indonesian authorities have ceased providing food and cash for tens of thousands of East Timorese refugees stuck in squalid camps in West Timor, an official said Wednesday.

Jakarta – The safety of refugees is still guaranteed: Even though the government has abolished refugee status for the refugees from East Timor with effect from 31 December 2001, Command

East Timorese asylum seekers might find it hard to settle back in their homeland even though it was technically safe to return, the United Nations refugee agency said yesterday.

Indonesia has extended its aid programs to some 70,000 East Timorese refugees by one month to the end of January, allowing them more time to decide between repatriation and resettlement

Oslo – Most of the 60,000 East Timorese refugees still abroad are likely to return by the end of 2002 and any linked to pro-Jakarta militias will be treated fairly, the territory's chie

Atambua – A man lobbed a Korean-made grenade into the middle of a crowded East Timorese refugee camp in Manumutin village, Atambua, early Sunday but the device failed to explode, a loca

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – As of January 2002, the government will no longer provide any financial or food assistance to East Timorese refugees in West Timor as it will reinstate the Ind

Jakarta – Indonesian police said on Wednesday they had arrested an Egyptian suspected of being the chief smuggler responsible for organising a refugee boat for illegal migrants which sa

Kupang – Afghan and Iraqi asylum-seekers staying at an Indonesian police college here quietly protested Wednesday against their treatment by the Australian military and international re

Jakarta – Indonesia's navy said on Wednesday it would not detain any asylum seekers found on boats in the country's waters and would even feed needy refugees before they resumed their j

Jakarta – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Tuesday that it has helped repatriate 188,646 East Timorese refugees from Indonesia's West Timor in the past two years.

Hong Kong – East Timor's future president Xanana Gusmao has recalled his fury when Australia refused to accept temporarily a handful of East Timorese students fleeing persecution in Ind

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesian police on Monday forcibly evicted 100 Middle Eastern asylum seekers, some of them screaming hysterically, who had been holed up at the UN refugee

More than 3,200 East Timorese refugees returned home from Indonesia during October, the UN High Commission for Refugees said Monday in Dili, underlining it was the biggest one-month inf

Jakarta – The Indonesian government has decided to halt humanitarian assitance to East Timorese refugees in West Timor at the end of the year, a senior minister said in remarks publishe

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Police deny allegations they forced asylum seekers at gunpoint on to a boat that subsequently sank, drowning about 350 people – but they admit "rogue" officer

Jakarta – Indonesian police said on Thursday they were investigating a report that policemen pointed their guns at asylum seekers who wanted to get off an overcrowded boat that sank las

Over 500 refugees crossed the border this morning in the second day of mass refugee returns from camps in Indonesian West Timor.

Yemris Fointuna, Atambua – At least 800 East Timorese refugees, formerly grouped under the Mahidi militia group from Ainaro regency, returned to their homeland on Wednesday and received

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Along with government aid for the 290,000 East Timorese remaining in Indonesia being discontinued at the end of December, the refugee status for people now liv

The Indonesian Government has shown new signs of its determination to rid itself of East Timorese refugees, and thousands of them are now likely to be forced back across the border with

Kupang – The government has said that, as of December this year, there will be no more humanitarian aid for around 290,000 East Timorese who opted to stay in Indonesia and are now livin

Kupang – Six people, including Adj. Brig.

Up to 1,663 illegal immigrants are known to have entered Indonesia in the past two years, Justice and Human Rights Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said yesterday.

Kupang – Of their own free will, hundreds of thousands of East Timorese who have been living in refugee camps in Indonesia's West Timor for the past two years, have now decided to retur

Jakarta – Indonesia expects to have repatriated 190,000 East Timorese refugees, currently still living in East Nusa Tenggara province, by the end of 2002, a minister said on Wednesday.