About RAIC
Refugee and Asylum Seeker Information Centre (RAIC)
Refugee and Asylum Seeker Information Centre (RAIC) Indonesia is a refugee-led organisation aiming to ease the burden for those fleeing persecution. Since 2017, we’ve worked from within Indonesia’s refugee community to respond to immediate humanitarian needs, provide specialised assistance and opportunities, and collaborate with refugees and asylum seekers to identify and access long-term solutions.
When our Founder and Director, Mozhgan, arrived as a refugee in Indonesia, she found a community struggling to survive. No one was asking our perspective or supporting us with what we most needed. Refugees in Indonesia have no legal rights to work, to study, to find housing, to marry, or to build a life for themselves in Indonesia. We were stuck waiting for others to decide our future.
In response, we set out to meet our community’s most urgent needs on our own by creating RAIC. We came to life with a clear vision: to ease the burden for people like us fleeing persecution.
The Problem
In 2023, Indonesia is still not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. As a result, more than 13,000 registered refugees are currently living across Indonesia with little to no support from the government.
International assistance for refugees in Indonesia is extremely limited and affected by changes to politics and policies in other countries. The few support services for refugees are overwhelmed, underfunded, and often ill-equipped for the unique and complex needs of refugees and asylum seekers.
Our basic rights are not guaranteed or protected. Every day we face barriers to basic services including language and cultural differences, harassment and discrimination, movement restrictions, unaffordable costs, and long waitlists. Meanwhile, we are also told that long-term solutions like resettlement are not available to us.
Our Solution
RAIC is stepping up to ensure the dignity and voices of our community members are no longer ignored. We see refugees like us not as ‘beneficiaries’ of assistance but as human beings capable of defining their own needs, aspirations, and solutions.
We deliver innovative grassroots programs that have found success through strong community trust and are backed by over 6 years experience operating as a refugee-led organisation in Indonesia.
We are experts in responding to and advocating for our community’s immediate needs by delivering targeted programs addressing nutrition, sanitation, medical care, legal aid, resettlement, and mental health.
Learn more about our programs and impact in the community by visiting the RAIC Indonesia website
