ABSTRACT
Indonesia is a staging post for people hoping to seek asylum in Australia. Many asylum seekers, including from Afghanistan, Iran and Sri Lanka, set up temporary residence there, while awaiting either the prospect of catching a boat to Australia or for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to process their claims. In recent times, the period of waiting has extended as Australia has implemented increasingly harsh deterrence policies, pushing boats back away from Australia and reducing settlement numbers from Indonesia. This creates an environment where uncertain futures and limited external resources mean that asylum seekers have to fend for themselves and their families for extended periods. This chapter reports on exploratory research conducted in Cisarua, a popular location for asylum seekers waiting in West Java, in late 2013. Being on the fringes of Indonesian society and with few rights, we discuss how a sense of community and self-help has evolved for this population. We examine the ways in which those denied state rights utilize their own capacities to achieve minimal survival.
