“Hussan Sa Rezi!”

Lewat pelantang suara, aku mendengar namaku disebut. Bingung, aku melirik teman satu sel untuk memastikan. Sepanjang masa tahananku, petugas keamanan tak pernah menyebutkan namaku dengan benar. Si teman sel menganggukkan kepala, membenarkan namaku termasuk dalam daftar tiga puluh pengungsi yang akan dibebaskan dari penjara pengungsi di Balikpapan.

I heard my name “Hussan Sa Rezi” on the loudspeaker. Puzzled, I looked at my cellmate for confirmation. During my whole imprisonment, the security guards hadn’t pronounced my name right. My cellmate nodded that it was my name among a list of thirty refugees who would be released from Balikpapan refugee prison.

Refugee people have been protesting for the last seven years due to uncertainty of their futures. They are stranded for nearly a decade and want from the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) to accelerate their case process and get resettlement to a third country. I analyse the strategies, mindset, challenges and achievement of the refugee protests in Pekanbaru.

Shapeless clouds painted over the rest of the sky. My friend, Hamid, interrupted me by bringing his exhausted face blocking the sky view and asked, “Where would you wish to be now?”

The system created for refugees in Indonesia is taking our lives. We lost two of our fellow refugees in one day. In Afghanistan, we lose our lives. In here, we lose our lives.

Like many of you, I have seen the Taliban from a long distance. You might have seen their photos and videos on newspapers and TV screens … I never thought I would see one of the key bases of the Taliban in Kabul from the closest possible distance. Eventually, it happened. On Wednesday, September 8, a group of young women had a peaceful gathering in front of a Taliban militant base in Karte Chahar, west part of Kabul, protesting against the violations of their human and civil rights. Two of my colleagues went to the scene to cover these peaceful protests.

I am a girl. I am 19 years old. I am from Kabul. I am from Afghanistan. I started school when I was a young girl. I wanted to be an engineer. I wanted to build my country.

On 15 August, Taliban militants entered Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and seized power without…

Since January 2021, one hundred refugee people have been protesting in front of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) offices in Indonesia’s most infected city, Jakarta, which has at least 19,000 active cases as of June 16. They shout the slogan: “Justice, equality and fair process for resettlement.”