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Some parents had concerns about their
children’s physical safety. Raahitha H., for
example, a Sri Lankan Tamil mother who
had been detained in an IDC for five
months with her two-year-old son, said,
“There is no safety here because there are
so many men. We are scared for our
children because of the other men being
around us. Sometimes they fight each
other, the men. My son sees them fight—
he watches like entertainment.” 70
Parents reported worries about the impact
of lengthy detention on their young
children. For instance, Selva P., a Tamil
man, was detained at Kalideres IDC for
three-and-a-half months with his
An asylum-seeking girl, thought to be from Sri Lanka,
walks through Belawan Immigration Detention Center
daughter, who was then four years old.
while detained with her family, September 2012.
© 2012 Kyle Knight / Human Rights Watch
Men and women are already
adults when they have these experiences, but children don’t understand
them—the first thing they know in their lives is painful. We have to explain
to them many times. 71
Children and adults are also held in informal detention facilities apart from and in addition
to the IDCs, including hotels and immigration offices.
Ahmad Z., an unaccompanied migrant boy from Afghanistan, was 17 years old when he
arrived in Indonesia. He reported that he was held in multiple immigration offices,
including the Medan office for 25 days. “Five people in one small room. It was all day, all
night lock-up.” 72 Ahmad was then transferred to Kalideres IDC where he was held for
70 Human Rights Watch group interview with Raahitha H., [location withheld], September 12, 2012.
71 Human Rights Watch group interview with Selva P., Cisarua, September 7, 2012.
72 Human Rights Watch interview with Ahmad Z., Yogyakarta, September 18, 2012.
29 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JUNE 2013