By: Jabir Ahmed *)
Illegal immigration in Indonesia has been a serious issue that the country faces over the past decade. One of the city in the country where the undocumented immigants easily to find is Bogor, a crowded city in southern Jakarta. There are 600 illegal migrants who have stayed in the city by the end of 2014 according to Immigration Office Class II of Bogor’s data. Over half of them are Afghan refugees while the rest come from Pakistan, Rohingya and Somalia who mainly have the same motivations of immigrating. Now in this article, the author would like to emphasize on the Afghan immigrants in Cisarua, a mountain town in southeastern Bogor.
Geneally speaking, the people of Afghanistan fled their homes, city and country due to the violence conflicts in their country. They were not primarily concerned with where they would resettle when leaving their homeland as the first goal was to get away as far as possible from conflicts. In the end they arrived in Indonesia and chose Puncak (a highland area in Bogor where Cisarua are located) as a temporary or for some a final destination. The problmes then show up since the majority of Afghan refugees in Cisarua are Hazara, the third largest ethnic groups in Afghanistan, who are Shiite/Shia adherents. In facts, however, the Shias are only a small minority in Indonesia which continuously getting rejection from Sunni Muslims that are majority in the country. There have been dozens or hundreds cases of conclicts involving Sunnis and Shias in various regions in Indonesia, including the attack to the Az Zikra Mosque in Sentul, Bogor, in February 2015, which invloved a group of men claiming to be representatives of a Shiite group.
Since the wave of Shias refugees came over to Cisarua over past several years and made an exclussive community under the United Nation High Commition for Refugees (UNHCR) control and assurance, Puncak area especially Cisarua has turned out to an Arabic town as the locals generally called. There are many Middle East people alongside the Afghan Shiite refugees live in the area, while some from other cities come over just to visit their friends, having tourism activitiies or even for bussines pruposes.
Despite the culture of Indonesians which are known to be quite friendly to newcomers, many locals of Cisarua have been protesting over the immigrants lifestyle, habits and cultures brought from their country. Alcohol consumptions, fights, prostutions and other “criminal” acts have been belong to the Afghan Shiites in Cisarua according to a local who not wanted his name mentioned. Worse than that, nikah mut’ah (marriage contract) practiced by the Shiite immigrants has been a prolonged controversy among the people of Puncak or Cisarua. These phenomena is actually not only a problem to the locals but also to the so-called largest Muslim Sunni country which has been long time “struggling” with sectarian issues and ideological-based conflicts.
To conclude, the such issues should not be overlooked by the government. Certain policies must be formulated and concrete actions must be taken immediately in order to minimize some further negative impacts in the future.
*) The Author Is Jakarta Regional Contributor
