Island of Refugees

I soon found myself in front of the prison’s trellis gate. A signboard said, “Besides being the headquarters of the Brimob [police] unit assigned to this camp for Vietnamese refugees, this building was also used as a prison for refugees who tried to escape from the camp or who were involved in criminal activities such as theft and the rape and murder of other refugees.”

In 1995, the refugees were repatriated by the Indonesian government and the UNHCR. Some of them refused to leave however, because they were worried that the situation in Vietnam was still as chaotic as it had been when they had left the country. The trauma of war continued to affect them deep down. Some set fire to the repatriation boats as a protest against being sent back to their country of origin. There were even some who chose to take their own lives rather than face returning to Vietnam. People are shaken to their very core when they are uprooted by the horrors of war, and Galang Island has born witness to a dark history.

published:  http://garudamagazine.com/features.php?id=232