Two decades since East Timor broke away from Indonesia, the misery of poverty continues to afflict ex-East Timor refugees who have chosen to remain citizens of Indonesia.
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Two decades since East Timor broke away from Indonesia, the misery of poverty continues to afflict ex-East Timor refugees who have chosen to remain citizens of Indonesia.
KUPANG, KOMPAS — Despite the annulment of the refugee status in 2002, many former East Timorese continue to live in refugee camps. They do not have homes or access to land so they can earn a decent living. They have lived in poverty since they decided to remain Indonesians 20 years ago following the 30 Aug. 1999 referendum.
Kompas last week traced a total of 358 families comprising more than 1,000 people still living in Tuapukan Camp in East Kupang district of Kupang regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), around 30 kilometers from the provincial capital of Kupang. Tuapukan is one of the refugee camps established for former pro-integration East Timorese following the referendum. They have lived in the camp since 4 Sept. 1999.
The huts with woven palm walls were built in 1999 at the camp, which stands on land belonging to the people of Tuapukan. More than four families occupy some of the 9-by-8-meter dirt-floor houses. Most of the huts are starting to fall apart.
Most of the ex-East Timorese living in the refugee camp have received no housing aid from the government, which is distributed to 13 locations in the regencies of Kupang, Belu, Northern Central Timor, Southern Central Timor and Malaka, as well as Kupang municipality.
The harvest is shared 40:60, 40 percent for the workers and 60 percent for the landowners.
A number of the refugees remaining in the camp have received housing aid, but have not moved in. The minimal road access and absence of farmland to provide a livelihood have forced them to return to the refugee camp, where they cultivate the land of local residents. The harvest is shared 40:60, 40 percent for the workers and 60 percent for the landowners.
The majority of ex-East Timorese work informally as farm workers or vegetable and firewood sellers. They cannot afford to buy farmland, which costs about Rp 50,000 per square meter.
“Where will I get the money to buy land? It’s expensive. It’s difficult to just buy food,” Marcelino Lopes, 51, who coordinates the ex-East Timor refugees in Tuapukan Camp, said on Friday (21/2/2020).
Several basic rights like national identity and social security cards, including the Healthy Indonesia Card and Smart Indonesia Card, have indeed been fulfilled. However, the lack of economic access through jobs or farmland has left them mired in structural poverty.
Minimum data
Data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) show that an estimated 290,000 East Timorese took refuge in Indonesia in the post-referendum period. Meanwhile, data from the 2001 NTT Master Plan for East Timor Refugee Management listed 284,148 refugees.
Some of the refugees remained in NTT, while others joined the transmigration program to other regions, and still others were repatriated to Timor Leste.
Social Protection and Security head Andreas Kono of the NTT Social Affairs Office said it was very difficult to gather accurate data on ex-East Timorese today.
“The government has not updated the data on ex-East Timorese for several years. They no longer have refugee or ex-refugee status, but are rather NTT residents categorized among the poor, the same as other local residents,” he said.
It feared that if the latest data were announced, the East Timorese refugees would again demand their rights.
In 2014, the Center for IDP Services (CIS) in West Timor and the United Nations Human Settlement Program (UN Habitat) gathered data on former East Timorese refugees in NTT. But not all the residents could be located at the time because the Belu regency administration prohibited it. It feared that if the latest data were announced, the East Timorese refugees would again demand their rights.
The Kupang administration permitted the data collection, which found around 7,350 households comprising 38,850 people in the regency. Of these, 725 families owned landed houses, 21 families had obtained building rights, 621 families lived in government housing and 330 families had a mortgage for inhabitable land, with their houses to be built by the government.
“The data isn’t sufficient to ascertain the total population of former East Timorese refugees in West Timor. They are scattered across the regencies of Belu, North Central Timor, South Central Timor and Malaka, and Kupang municipality. This does not include those in other regencies in NTT like Alor, Sikka and East Flores,” said Wendy Intan of CIS West Timor.
Transmigration
In general, the former East Timorese refugees who joined the transmigration program and settled in regions outside NTT also live in poverty.
In Central Kalimantan, for instance, at least 250 former East Timorese live in areas of Pulang Pisau and Lamandau regencies. Some of them have secured housing and land, while others have only received housing.
Zero de Deus, 48, is one of East Timorese migrant who has been living since 2015 in Hanjak Maju village, Pulang Pisau. He has received a house and 1,500 square meters of land. He has received much less than the originally promised 2 hectares, because the allocated plot was involved in a land dispute. He also has difficulty in cultivating the peatland he received.
Emanuel, 56, another East Timorese migrant, has given up on cultivating the peatland he was allotted. He has sold his house and land to lead a modest life as an oil palm plantation worker, and lives at the company dormitory. (KOR/ FRN/ IDO)