East Timor (Timor Leste)

There were 1,600 East Timorese asylum seekers remaining in Australia. More than 450 East Timorese refugees returned to East Timor during the year. East Timor hosted three refugees and 12 asylum seekers from South, South East Asia and Africa in 2003. East Timor split from Indonesia in 1999 after a UN sponsored referendum for independence and the country formally declared independence in May 2002. Because of increased stability some refugees returned to East Timor while others continued their asylum claims elsewhere.

East Timorese Asylum Seekers

Some 28,000 former refugees from East Timor remained in West Timor, Indonesia, at the end of 2003. Indonesia allows full citizenship to those from East Timor remaining in Indonesia, and since the threat of violence in areas of origin ended, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) invoked the cessation clause under the UN Refugee Convention in January 2003. Neither UNHCR nor the U.S. Committee for Refugees counted them as refugees. Ninety-nine percent of the Timorese remaining in Indonesia registered to become Indonesian citizens.

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