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ICANet
CONDEMNS THE ILLEGAL CHINESE-INDONESIAN ASYLUM RING
For Immediate Release
San Francisco, November 27, 2004
We understand that on November 22, 2004, United States Attorney
for the Eastern District of Virginia, Paul J. McNulty announced
the filing of charges against twenty-six defendants (mostly
Chinese-Indonesian asylees) who run brokerages for asylum
fraud; labor certification fraud; identification document
fraud; and conspiracy. It was revealed that the defendants
aided thousands of Indonesian immigrants living throughout
the United States to fraudulently apply for a wide variety
of government benefits in return for substantial fees.
In response to this news, we urgently make these following
statements:
ICANet strongly condemns the fraudulent practices of those
immigration brokerages who exploit naive asylum seekers
from Indonesia for immediate financial gain in return.
ICANet strongly condemns the Chinese-Indonesian asylum seekers
who knowingly take advantage of these outrageous practices
in order to get their asylum granted by the United States
government.
ICANet needs to emphasize that the majority of Chinese-Indonesian
asylees and asylum applicants do not use the services of
those illegal brokerages. We urge United States Government
to acknowledge that there are many honest Chinese-Indonesian
asylees and asylum seekers who flee Indonesia because of
a real fear of persecution.
ICANet strongly reiterates that the Chinese in Indonesia
still experience the well-founded fear of persecution. The
practice and cycle of violence and systematic state discrimination
towards Chinese Indonesians has consistently taken place
since 1774 up to present time. There are more than 60 discriminative
laws against ethnic Chinese minorities that still prevail.
In addition, persecution against Christians is still at
large as evidenced by closed, damaged, or burnt churches.
There is a strong indication that the Indonesian military
took part in May Riots 1998 where more than 168 Chinese
Indonesian women were gang raped. The Indonesian military
also has caused other atrocities throughout Indonesia, including
East Timor, Aceh, West Papua, Poso and Ambon. No ongoing
investigation and prosecution has been done up to date.
We urge United States government to keep the embargo to
Indonesian Military.
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