Jakarta Proposes Covid-19 Vaccination for Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Jakarta, MINA – The Jakarta Provincial Government proposes that refugees and asylum seekers who are not Indonesian citizens can get the Covid-19 vaccine.

Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta Ahmad Riza Patria said the proposal had been submitted through a letter to the Ministry of Health.

“This is a humanitarian matter, so we don’t differentiate between religion, ethnicity, and local customs. Jakarta serves all people, even foreigners (foreign citizens) we serve well,” Ahmad Riza told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has proposed to the DKI Provincial Government that refugees and asylum seekers who are elderly and have comorbid diseases can get access to the Covid-19 vaccine.

The DKI Provincial Government, through a letter signed by Governor Anies Baswedan, then proposed to the Ministry of Health that all refugees and asylum seekers could receive the Covid-19 vaccine.

This is considering the implementation of the Covid-19 vaccination in Jakarta has also targeted children aged 12 years and over, as well as government policies that allow foreign workers in Indonesia to access vaccines through the mutual cooperation vaccination program.

Anies requested that these asylum seekers be included in the category of vaccine recipients through a free vaccination program coordinated by the Health Office.

However, the Ministry of Health has so far not approved the proposal.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health’s vaccination program, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said the government has so far prioritized Indonesian citizens.

“They (refugees and asylum seekers) are not targeted and we are still prioritizing Indonesian citizens,” Nadia said.

So far, Indonesia has only injected 76.9 million doses of vaccine out of a total requirement of 416 million doses of vaccine.

Of these, 51.75 million were the first injections and 25.1 million were the second doses.

This means that only 12.09 percent of the Indonesian population has received two doses of vaccine from the total target of 208.26 million people. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)