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OnAsylum

Asia

Indonesia

Indonesia is not a party to the Refugee Convention and functions mainly as a transit country — UNHCR registers and processes claims, but refugees generally cannot work legally and often wait years for third-country resettlement, which has very limited annual capacity.

At a glance, for someone deciding whether to come here

Not tourist facts — the things that actually shape daily life while your case is pending and after it's decided.

Right to workNo legal right to work — one of the more restrictive situations on this list, often for a period of years.
Cost of living Moderate Moderate; Jakarta costs more than smaller cities where some refugees are housed.
Healthcare while pendingLimited, generally provided through UNHCR/IOM-linked services rather than guaranteed public access.
LanguageIndonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) — a real barrier for most arrivals initially.
Family reunificationNot a formal mechanism in itself; families are generally processed together within the same resettlement queue if they arrive together.
After you're granted statusNo local integration path — the entire system is designed around waiting for resettlement elsewhere, which is itself far from guaranteed.
ClimateTropical, hot and humid year-round.
Existing communitySizeable populations from Afghanistan, Somalia, and Myanmar, concentrated in a handful of cities with UNHCR presence.
Starter content, pending expert review. This page describes general, publicly known information about how this country's asylum system works. It is not legal advice and may be out of date — policies change often. Last drafted 2026-09-04.

How you could qualify to enter this system

  • Registration with UNHCR Indonesia, which conducts refugee status determination in the absence of a domestic asylum law

How the process generally works

Applicants register with UNHCR, are interviewed, and if recognized, are placed in a queue for third-country resettlement — a process that has historically taken years given how few resettlement places are available worldwide relative to demand.

Step by step

  1. Register with UNHCR

    Register and be interviewed by UNHCR, which conducts status determination directly since Indonesia has no domestic refugee status determination system of its own.

  2. Recognition and resettlement queue Historically years, given how limited annual resettlement places are worldwide relative to demand

    If recognized, you're placed in a queue for third-country resettlement.

What you'll typically need

  • Any ID available (not always required to register)
  • Details of your situation for registration purposes

Support available while your case is decided

  • UNHCR and IOM provide some support and community housing arrangements in a limited number of locations

Be realistic about the timeline here: Indonesia was historically a departure point for dangerous, sometimes fatal boat journeys toward Australia, precisely because the legal alternative — years of waiting with no right to work — was so difficult. We're not going to pretend the legal route is easy, but we'd strongly discourage an unauthorized boat journey as an alternative; talk to our team about what your realistic options actually are. One thing worth knowing: unlike some countries with no domestic asylum law, Indonesia's 2016 Presidential Regulation on the Handling of Refugees does formally embed some refugee protection principles in domestic law, even without joining the 1951 Convention — in practice, UNHCR still runs registration and status determination day-to-day.

Common pitfalls

  • Underestimating how long the resettlement wait can be — recognized refugees in Indonesia have historically waited years, with no legal right to work in the meantime.
  • Considering an unauthorized onward boat journey (historically toward Australia) as a shortcut — this has been a genuinely dangerous, sometimes fatal route, and Australia's policy toward unauthorized boat arrivals specifically is separately very strict.
Sources checked for this page