Thousands of refugees in Indonesia have spent years awaiting resettlement. Their future is unclear
Hundreds of refugees are living in community housing on an island in northwestern Indonesia while waiting for resettlement in a third country. Hotel Kolekta, a former tourist hotel there, was converted in 2015 into a temporary shelter that today houses 228 refugees from conflict-torn nations including Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan and elsewhere. Indonesia, despite having a long history of accepting refugees, is not a signatory to the U.N. Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol, and the government does not allow refugees and asylum-seekers to work. Many had fled to the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago as a jumping-off point hoping to eventually reach Australia by boat, but are now stuck in what feels like an endless limbo.