UNHCR Assures No Timor Leste Refugee Stranded In RI

Kuta (Antara Bali) - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has assured that there has been no Timor Leste refugee being stranded in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

"Timor Leste citizens found in NTT are not under refugee category," Jakarta UNHCR office external relations official Mitra Salima Suryono said here on Friday.

She made the statement in response to continuing mass media reports about Timor Leste refugees living in destitution in NTT.

"After a referendum the Indonesian and Timor Leste governments have made an agreement with regard to the refugee issue. So, since 2002 there has no longer been any refugee," she said on the sidelines of familiarizing "the UNHCR Mandate and Refugee Problem in Indonesia."

From the referendum until two years after the running of the Timor Leste government refugees in NTT and Timor Leste have been put under the UNHCR responsibility.(IGT)