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Overcrowding results in packed rooms with little or no privacy. Nasir A., from Afghanistan,
said he was detained at Pekanbaru IDC with his wife and daughters, then aged 10, 6, and 4
years, for one year. “The room [we stayed in] was a little bigger than these two rooms [a
total area about 30 feet by 15 feet] for three families, a total of 17 people. There were no
walls, no curtains.” 191 Faizullah A., an unaccompanied migrant boy who was 17 years old
when he was detained in 2011 at Pontianak IDC, reported that the room in which he slept
was, approximately 20 feet by 30 feet. “There were 34 or 35 other people there, all male ...
including [another unaccompanied child],” he said. 192
Sher K., an adult Afghan refugee, was held in a confinement cell at Kalideres IDC: “We were
put in a four foot by eight foot cell for six months—for six people. There wasn’t even space
for us all to sleep at night. There wasn’t space on the floors; we slept in shifts. 193 Khalid A.,
also an Afghan refugee, experienced severe overcrowding at two IDCs between 2009 and
2011: “Manado’s capacity is 100. The most when I was there was 160.” In Kupang IDC, near
a popular departure point for boats to Australia, he said, “the capacity is 60 to 80 people.
The most who were there when I was there was 280.” 194
Migrants also reported overcrowding in the temporary holding cells in immigration offices
in Jakarta and Polonia. 195
Lack of Adequate Bedding, Flooded Sleeping Areas
Some migrants in IDCs interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they were not given
adequate bedding, 196 and experienced flooding in their sleeping areas, particularly during
the rainy season. Mohammad S., age 30, said he was detained at Belawan IDC for 14
months starting in 2010:
191 Human Rights Watch group interview with Nasir A. and family, Medan, August 25, 2012.
192 Human Rights Watch interview with Faizullah A., Medan, August 25, 2012.
193 Human Rights Watch interview with Sher K., Medan, August 25, 2012.
194 Human Rights Watch interview with Khalid A., Medan, August 25, 2012.
195 In 2010 in Jakarta, Sher K. was “put in a cell fit for eight men—but we were sixteen men.” Human Rights Watch interview
with Sher K., Medan, August 25, 2012. Khalid was held at the Polonia immigration office in December 2011: “It was a very
small room, just for five people, but sometimes ten of us were inside.” Human Rights Watch interview with Khalid A., Medan,
August 25, 2012.
196 Standard Minimum Rules, art. 19 (“[e]very prisoner shall … be provided with a separate bed, and with separate and
sufficient bedding which shall be clean when issued[.]”).
55 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JUNE 2013