RI HAS NO PLAN TO BECOME REFUGEES' DESTINATION COUNTRY

Jakarta, June 20 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government has no plan to declare the country a destination for refugees from other countries as regulated by a convention of the United Nations (UN), a foreign affairs ministry spokesman said.

"Even without becoming a destination country, Indonesia has already handled many cases of this (refugee) problem," Teuku Faizasyah, a spokesman of the foreign affairs ministry, said here on Friday.

Indonesia is surrounded by some problematic countries, so that Indonesia becomes a destination of refugees, according to him.

The Indonesian government has given optimal assistance to the refugees so far, he said.

The refugee handling usually took a long time because the process of moving them to the third country was complicated, he said.

"Refugees are impatient to go to the third country as soon as possible, so it could cause irritation with neighboring countries," he said.

When the refugees are classified, they must soon be moved. "They should not take their own way for their placement," he said.

Meanwhile, the Batam immigration office has up to the middle of this year handled at least 140 illegal Afghan migrants who entered the island through small ports.

"The number of illegal Afghan migrants who entered Batam has continued to increase and up to the middle of this year, the immigration has handled about 140 persons," Batam Immigration chief for supervision Yudi Kurniadi said recently.

He said that most of the illegal migrants had fled and avoided conflict in their and sought asylum in other countries.

"Since the outbreak of the Taliban conflict in that country the number of illegal Afghan migrants has continued to increase," he said.

Chief of Batam Immigration office Dirman Sukardi said earlier that Indonesia had become a transit point for illegal migrants in their efforts to find a third country. "Generally, the seek for asylum in Australia," he added.