Images of police beating Afghan refugees with batons at a protest in Pekanbaru, Indonesia on January 18, 2022 have been circulating on social media. Demonstrations have been going on for months across the country, as thousands of Afghan refugees, mostly members of the Hazara ethnic minority, demand quicker resettlement in third countries. Some have been waiting for over a decade.
A minority long oppressed in Afghanistan, Hazaras, who are overwhelmingly Shia Muslims, have been coming to Indonesia for years, hoping to get asylum in other countries like the US and Australia.
