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Refugees in Indonesia were assured on Tuesday that they would be given access to health care and a compulsory education for their children while waiting for permanent solutions to their cases.

“Wherever there is a concentration of refugees, we cooperate with the local public health care center [Puskesmas] that attends to their health problems and ensure that they are looked after,” Lukman Moeslich, who oversees the refugee protection and empowerment program for the Church World Service, said on Tuesday at the World Refugee Day celebration held in Cisarua, Bogor.

CWS is a US-based humanitarian agency that holds a mandate from the UN Refugee Agency to monitor and assist in the welfare of those who are granted refugee status.

Lukman said the refugees would be referred to a designated hospital if their local health center was unable to manage their health issues.

“The asylum seekers are also eligible for our health care services in emergency situations,” he said.

At least 100 refugees from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq, the Ivory Coast, Somalia, Congo and Burma gathered in Cisarua on Tuesday to celebrate World Refugee Day, which fell on June 20.

The theme for this year’s celebration is: “Real people, real needs.”

The majority of those at the event appeared to be single men but some families also attended with their children.

Lukman said refugee children could attend local public schools to ensure that they received a comprehensive education while waiting for a third country to take them in.

“From this year, they are eligible to have a nine-year compulsory education in accordance with the national program,” he said, adding that they could study in public schools for free.

However, if the parents wanted their children to attend private schools, they were advised that the CWS would only provide the same amount of financial assistance as the fees for a public school education. Parents would be required to pay the difference.

Lukman said that the main obstacle facing refugee children was language barrier, as classes are conducted in Indonesian. However, he said many of them were able to learn and adapt quickly.

“There was one child who went to school in Cipayung and could speak Sundanese,” Lukman said.

He said the child attended school through to grade five before being relocated to Canada.

CWS also provides microfinance loans as part of its refugee program.

Participants are encouraged to propose simple business plans to exercise their entrepreneurial skills. If their proposal is considered viable, the CWS provides them with the capital.

“Last year we provided Rp 1.5 million [$145] for each business proposal and this year we increased that to Rp 3.5 million,” Lukman said, adding that some of the refugees had established tailoring businesses or set up cellphone credit kiosks.