Australia will be asked to "share the burden" of asylum seekers with Indonesia, where detention centres are overcrowded with people stymied by the Abbott government's hardline border po

Theresia Sufa and Sita W.

Jakarta/Makassar – Australia's military-led operation to prevent boats carrying asylum seekers from reaching its shores has been hailed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott as a success, with

Yuliasri Perdani, Kupang – It has been seven months since Farzaneh Ansari, 22, and her husband were picked up by personnel of the East Nusa Tenggara Police in the waters off Sumba Islan

Kim Doyle – In 2009, 254 refugees staged a courageous six-month sit-in on a small boat moored at the port of Merak, Indonesia.

Sharna Jade Bremner – On 30 August 1999 an overwhelming majority of East Timorese voters rejected a continuation of Indonesian rule, with nearly 80 per cent choosing independence.

Mark Solomons and George Roberts, Jakarta – An asylum seeker whose boat was turned back to Indonesia by Australia has given the ABC a detailed first-person account of being deliberately

George Roberts in Jakarta and Mark Solomons – Asylum seekers who were forcibly returned to Indonesia by lifeboat have given the first detailed account of their ordeal, and a unique insi

Cilacap, Central Java – Asylum-seekers who washed ashore in Indonesia have claimed the Australian navy blew up their vessel after forcing the would-be refugees into a lifeboat and turni

Yoseph Kellen – The Kupang immigration office in East Nusa Tenggara has prepared 5,000 square meters of land on the island of Sumba as a temporary shelter to house asylum seekers denied

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – The Indonesian government has reiterated its demand for Australia to stop its border operation crackdown on boat people, following Canberra's revelation that

Kate Lamb in Jakarta and Oliver Laughland in Sydney – Australian naval ships entered Indonesian territorial waters often and with ease before the incursions sparked a diplomatic inciden

Harriet Conron & Kennial Caroline Laia – Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa reiterated on Thursday that Australia's "Operation Sovereign Borders" policy, under which asylum-seeker bo

Kate Davidson & Poppy Saker-Norrish, Jakarta – One young man wakes up each day in Jakarta wondering if his family members in Quetta, Pakistan, have been murdered because they belong

Aubrey Belford, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara – On New Year's day, 45 asylum seekers in a ramshackle wooden boat slid ashore on a small island off the Australian city of Darwin.

Michael Bachelard – For a man whose words have whipped up a political and media storm in Australia, Yousif Ibrahim Fasher has been remarkably untroubled by visits from journalists.

Helen Davidson – Reports are coming out of Indonesia of a boat arriving at a West Java beach carrying asylum seekers who say they were transferred from their vessel into a lifeboat and

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's statement saying that Australia would continue to stop the boats carrying asylum seekers was a defiant stance against

Bridie Jabour and Katharine Murphy – The Australian navy has been accused of burning asylum seekers during a towback to Indonesia.

Australia on Saturday vowed there would be no further intrusions into Indonesian waters during its military-led crackdown on people-smuggling boats, after Jakarta demanded operations be

Indonesia has condemned Australian naval incursions into its waters as a "violation of its sovereignty".

A group of asylum seekers say they were given a boat by Australian authorities in which they were forced to return to Indonesia under their own steam after their own vessel's engine fai

Ina Parlina and Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen.

Two men who claim they were on asylum seeker boats towed back to Indonesia by the Australian Navy have told the ABC they were mistreated before being abandoned at sea.

Government officials have provided conflicting statements regarding Indonesia's stance on Australia's "turn back the boats" policy after the Indonesian Military (TNI) chief said that su

Daniel Hurst, Lenore Taylor and Helen Davidson – A government plan to send asylum seekers heading to Australia back towards Indonesia in supplied lifeboats has the potential to exacerba

George Roberts, Indonesia – Indonesian police have told the ABC that a second boat carrying asylum seekers has been forced back to Indonesian waters by the Australian Navy.

Keerom – Refugees who have returned to Indonesia's Papua province from exile in neighbouring Papua New Guinea (PNG) are disillusioned with their new lives.

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The government rebuffed on Tuesday Australia's claim that Indonesia was responsible for the fate of a group of asylum seekers at the center of a maritime standoff

Fadli, Batam – The Maritime Security Coordinating Board (Bakorkamla) says it rejects being dictated to by Australia in deciding the way it handles boat people wanting to enter the count

A boatload of asylum seekers at the centre of a standoff between Australia and Indonesia will be taken to Christmas Island.

Michael Bachelard – Indonesia will offer to step up naval patrols in the ocean between Java and Australia in an attempt to combat people smuggling, a government spokesman has said.

Marni Cordell – Experts in refugee law have warned that Australia cannot pass off to Papua New Guinea its responsibility to process the claims of seven West Papuan asylum seekers.

Six of the West Papuans who sought asylum in Australia after being persecuted for their involvement in a ceremonial handover of sacred water and ashes as part of the Freedom Flotilla, w

Marni Cordell – One of the three men who occupied the Australian consulate in Bali on Sunday says he is being pursued by the Indonesian military and does not believe Indonesia's assuran

The Netherlands-based advocacy group Foundation Pro Papua says the seven Papuan asylum seekers deported from Australia should be given the option to test their legal rights under the Re

Refugee advocates in Australia want the United Nations to take action over what they say is the government's failure to abide by the Refugees Convention.

Ian Rintoul – Yesterday at his press briefing, Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, claimed that Australia had removed seven West Papuan asylum seekers to PNG last Friday on the basis

The group of seven West Papuan asylum seekers deported by Australia to Papua New Guinea say they feel powerless and afraid about what will happen to them.

An Australian activist group says the Australian government is doing its best to wash their hands of the plight of a group of West Papuan asylum seekers, which have been transferred fro

The Refugee Action Coalition says the Australian government has acted unlawfully in transferring seven West Papuans, who had fled Indonesia and sought asylum in Queensland, to Papua New

West Papua Action Auckland,
Box 68-419,
Auckland.

30 September 2013

Rebecca Lake & Sandra Siagian – Indonesian leaders and rights groups have criticized Australia's policy on asylum-seekers, citing its disregard for human rights and ineffective unil

Jakarta – The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) has allegedly been receiving illegal funds from the Australian government with regard to the handling of refugees and asylum s

George Roberts, Indonesia – Members of the Indonesian military have been implicated in a fatal people-smuggling operation that may have killed up to 30 children.

Survivors of a boat that sank off Java claim the Australian embassy ignored a distress call.

There are fears for the safety of a group of West Papuans held by Australia's Immigration Department after fleeing from Indonesia.

George Roberts, staff – For the second time in 24 hours, Australian authorities are attempting to return asylum seekers to Indonesia after rescuing them at sea.

The Indonesian foreign ministry has warned that the Australian government's plan to turn back asylum seeker boats would endanger co-operation and trust in joint efforts aimed at combati

Joel Magarey And Lauren Wilson – Up to seven West Papuan independence activists are believed to have fled across the Torres Strait to northern Queensland in search of asylum after suppo