Aidi Yursal, Medan – Scores of asylum seekers who have been detained for years by immigration authorities in Medan have demanded an end to their limbo and want an immediate decision on whether they will be sent to a third country.

"I have been living at this shelter in Medan with my wife and two children for almost two years now," Muhammad, an asylum-seeker from Afghanistan, said on Wednesday. "We're living in uncertainty while we wait to find out which country will accept us." He said that he hoped to land in Australia, New Zealand or Canada.

Like the scores of other asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma and elsewhere who are being held in Indonesia, Muhammad and his family rely on food rations of one kilogram of rice per person every four days, as well as a monthly stipend of Rp 300,000 ($33) every 15 days, from the International Organization for Migration.

The children also receive a rudimentary education, but Muhammad said that did not justify the years they had spent waiting for the IOM and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to process their cases.

Muhammad dispelled rumors that asylum seekers were planning to march to the IOM office to protest the lengthy process, saying that he did not want to jeopardize his family's chances of being granted asylum.

The rumor also said the detainees at the Belawan immigration detention center, 20 kilometers north of Medan, were also planning to take part in a rally, but an official there said it was not true.

"How could they possibly take part in a rally at a place 20 kilometers away?" the official asked, on condition of anonymity. "Besides, we keep a very close watch on them and they have to get permission for every single trip outside of the detention center."

The official added that the asylum-seekers at Belawan had not been in the country as long as those at the IOM camp in Medan and had yet to be processed by the IOM and UNHCR.

The plight of asylum seekers in the country was highlighted again late last month when a 28-year-old Afghan man died after reportedly being beaten at the immigration detention center in Pontianak, West Kalimantan. Officers at the center are still under investigation.

The Directorate General of Immigration says that as of December, there were about 4,000 illegal immigrants in the country. More than 3,000 were classified as asylum seekers.