'BOAT PEOPLE' PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED WITH OTHER COUNTRIES

Banda Aceh, May 26 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government will involve other parties in settling the presence of 446 foreign "boat people" in Aceh, namely their countries of origin and the countries of their destination, a foreign ministry official said.

M Asruchin, the ministry's director for Central and South Asia, was referring to the 391 Rohyngians and 55 Sri Lankans currently staying in Aceh after leaving their countries in wooden boats that eventually got stranded in Indonesian waters.

"We will involve the governments of the countries they came from and of the countries they intended to go to," Asruchin said after a meeting with Naggroe Aceh Darsussalam (NAD) Vice Governor Muhammad Nazar here Monday.

He said the Indonesian government was in general strongly committed to handling all the foreign refugees who had entered the country in accordance with internationally-accepted principles.

The first thing the foreign ministry had done with regard to the boat people was verifying their status and their motives for leaving their countries. The results of the verification was done in Jakarta.

"We are trying to find the best possible way of moving them, and, where possible, of repatriating them," he said.

In the effort the government was involving their countries of origin and the countries they wented to go to. After reaching an agreement with those countries, they would be relocated to the agreed country, he said.

In January 2009, 193 ethnic Rohingyans were found drifting aimlessely and in dire conditions in waters near Sabang and in February 220 more got stranded in waters off the coast of Idi Rayek in East Aceh.

Another group of foreign boat people entered Indonesian waters at Naga Raya in May, namely 55 refugees from Srilanka.