Ministry Of Foreign Affairs: Nearly 2.000 Foreign Refugees Have Been Vaccinated Against COVID-19

ILLUSTRATION/BETWEEN

JAKARTA - The government has injected a COVID-19 vaccine into nearly 2.000 foreign refugees despite problems with population administration.

"So far, as far as our records, 1.373 refugees have been vaccinated for the first phase and 587 for the second phase out of 600 vaccinated in Jakarta," said Director of Human Rights and Security at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Achsanul Habib, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, October 12.

The refugees are scattered in various areas, such as Jakarta, Kupang, Tanjung Pinang, East Aceh, Medan, and Tangerang.

Achsanul said that giving vaccines to refugees is the government's effort to achieve group immunity because refugees also live and work in the community.

However, he admitted that vaccination for the refugees also encountered obstacles, such as the National Identity Number (NIK) which was not owned like a legal foreign citizen (WNA).

So, he continued, the government needs to coordinate with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

“From a technical perspective, first they are foreigners who are not categorized as legal foreigners, such as expatriates and so on. We need to make sure with a body like UNHCR because the basis is NIK," he said.

Achsanul explained that there are 16 digits in the NIK, while the refugee identity number is only five digits, so it cannot be entered into an integrated system, such as the PeduliLindung application.

"Then, there was a discussion (to) add the leading zero so that it becomes 16," he said.

In addition, he said the vaccine program for refugees would not interfere with the state budget because the state funds were used for Indonesian citizens.

"In the meantime, non-category foreigners. This is then we look for a way out. The DKI Provincial Government issued a mutual cooperation vaccine yesterday. It was a pilot project on the 7-8 yesterday, the second one at the end of the month," he said.

Director-General of Multilateral Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Febrian A Ruddyard, said that as of October 3, 2021, Indonesia had received an additional 39 million doses of vaccine from AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Pfizer, and Moderna, bringing the total vaccine received by Indonesia to reach 267 million doses.

"Currently, Indonesia is also increasing vaccine manufacturing to make it a vaccine training center that competes with India and South Korea and will be announced in 2022," he said.