 |
| This photo shows two asylum-seeking boys standing on a staircase as they are detained at Belawan Immigration Detention Center in September 2012 |
I was disturbed by this story when reading it on
http://www.hrw.org, these boys or rather children are from various nationalities; their story shows they are resilient and brave in finding their path in such remarkable journeys alone. Read on please....
A story as told by Alice Farmer, children's rights researcher
I met Arif, a 16-year-old boy from Afghanistan, in a Pizza Hut near Jakarta, Indonesia. He dressed neatly, with his hair carefully slicked back. He held himself with confidence, dressed in a pressed, white t-shirt, but beneath the exterior I saw a boy who lived thousands of miles away from his family, who had risked his life repeatedly for safety and opportunity.
We were meeting to discuss Arif’s experiences while locked up in Indonesia’s immigration detention system. But his story began when, at 15, he borrowed $7,000 from his oldest brother, who lived in Australia, to hire smugglers to sneak him out of Afghanistan and into Indonesia. He ultimately planned to join his brother in Australia, where he hoped to claim asylum, go to school and build a new life.
