Indonesia is locking up hundreds of child asylum-seekers and migrants in squalid detention centers where they are sometimes assaulted, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.
According to the rights group's new report, these children are held alongside adults in centers where detainees are tied up, gagged, beaten with sticks, burned with cigarettes and given electric shocks.
As the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, Indonesia is a common transit point for asylum seekers usually hoping to reach Australia by boat. But many are caught by the authorities. Among those who are caught are children who risk "life and limb" to flee violence and poverty from countries such as Somalia and Afghanistan, only to find themselves locked up in detention centers in Indonesia, said the rights group.
"Each year, hundreds are detained in sordid conditions, without access to lawyers, and are sometimes beaten," Human Rights Watch said. "Both adults and children described guards kicking, punching, and slapping them and other detainees."
More than 1,000 unaccompanied children arrived in Indonesia last year, the rights group said in the report, for which it interviewed 42 people who were children when they came to Indonesia, in addition to interviewing immigration officials and NGOs. While many asylum-seekers are held in detention centers, others are left on the streets with no legal or material assistance, as there is no government agency responsible for their guardianship, said the report.
The group urged Indonesia to clean up its detention facilities – which were described as overcrowded and unsanitary – and institute fair and thorough processing for those seeking asylum.
"Desperate children will keep coming to Indonesia, and the government should step up to give them decent care," said the group's children's rights researcher Alice Farmer. But Indonesian immigration official Subandriyani described the claims in the report as "untrue and baseless" and said guards would not dare abuse detainees as they would lose their jobs if discovered.