Stateless Rohingya Refugee Children in North Sumatra: A Quest to Their Basic Rights

Abstract

This research focuses on rights issues faced by several Rohingya refugee children with stateless
status in North Sumatra (Indonesia) due to the loss of their parents' citizenship following a law passed by the
Myanmar government in 1982. Three important questions were investigated (1) Did they attain protection,
respect, and recognition by national and international legal standards? (2) What measures have been ratified
by Indonesia as a transit country to protect, realize, and recognize their rights? And (3) what measures are
international institutions taking to overcome their stateless status?Torespond to the proposed problems,
normative and empirical legal research techniques were developed using the Convention on the Rights of the
Child (Presidential Decree No. 36 of 1990) as a legal framework in the analysis. The results showed that (1)
Rohingya refugee children from North Sumatra are not fully protected, and respected in terms of their
fundamental rights on stateless status/identity, education, local reintegration and the risk of underage
marriages with girls, (2) The Indonesian government has provided sufficient facilities to IOM and UNHCR.
However, the fact that the country did not sign the Refugee Convention and its Protocols became a reason to
avoid further efforts, (3) The IOM, as a mandate holder, meets the basic life's needs. Nevertheless, they
ignore the practices of violating the rights of children in camps and among those stemming from the mixed
marriage of refugee men of Rohingya and Indonesian women.