Indonesia hopes Australia will take refugees By Jewel Topsfield Retno Marsudi is hoping for help.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi says she hopes other countries - including Australia - will assist with resettling refugees because Indonesia lacks the capacity to shelter them long-term. 
Speaking ahead of a regional forum on people smuggling, Ms Retno said Indonesia understood the refugee crisis in Europe had affected the resettlement of refugees in Indonesia to a third country.
"We already hosted more than 13,000 thousand refugees and asylum seekers that have been years in Indonesia waiting to be resettled," she said in an interview with Fairfax Media.
"And   May last year we received almost 2000 coming from Bangladesh and Myanmar."Of course there is hope from Indonesia not only to Australia but to every country to be more receptive to these migrants who have been waiting for resettlement."
Asked if Indonesia could integrate the refugees into its own society, Ms Retno replied: "We could not do something beyond our capacity".
Australia resettles by far the largest number of refugees from Indonesia, accepting more than 2300 refugees since 2010.
In 2013 Australia resettled 808 out of a total of 898 in 2013.
However, in 2014 Australia announced it would cut its quota to 450 and would not resettle anyone who registered in Indonesia after   July 1, 2014 to discourage more people from coming to Indonesia.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton will attend the sixth Bali Process Ministerial Conference in Bali next week, a regional forum with 45 member countries that is co-chaired by Indonesia and Australia.
"It is important that all nations take a strong stance against the criminal networks that engage in people smuggling and human trafficking," Ms Bishop said.
"We must have close co- operation and effective partnerships with countries across the Indo Pacific region and that is why the Bali Process is important."
Indonesia is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and offers no formal rights to refugees and asylum seekers.
Ms Retno said Indonesia was not aiming in the short term to become a party to the convention.
But she said Indonesia's humanitarian response to the refugee crisis in southeast Asia last year went beyond the principles of the convention. In   May 2015 about 8000 people were stranded in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea after they were abandoned by boat crews following Thailand's announcement of a crackdown on human trafficking.
After initially pushing back boats, Indonesia agreed to provide shelter to 2000 Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya refugees on the proviso they would be resettled by the international community within a year.
However, Ms Retno said this deadline was no longer realistic given the refugee crisis in Europe and Indonesia would continue to hold discussions with the UNHCR and International Organisation of Migration.