Galang (Indonesian: Pulau Galang) is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

of 80 km² located 25 mi (40 km) southeast of

Batam Batam, officially the City of Batam (, not to be confused with ''Batam Kota'', a kecamatan, district within this city), is the largest List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in the Indonesian province of Riau Islands. The city administra ...

, belonging to a group of three islands called Barelang (an abbreviation of

Rempang Rempang Island () is an Indonesian island, located 2.5 km southeast of the neighbouring Batam Island, with the total land mass size of 165.83 km2. Rempang Island belongs to the three- interconnected islands group of Riau Archipelago kno ...

-Galang). Part of the

Riau Archipelago The Riau Archipelago is a ''geographic'' term (as opposed to administrative region) for the core group of islands within the Riau Islands Province in Indonesia, and located south of Singapore and east of Riau on Sumatra. Before the province of Ri ...

, Indonesia, Galang is located just south of

and

which themselves are just south of

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and

Johor Johor, also spelled Johore,'' is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. It borders with Pahang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the north. Johor has maritime borders with Singapore ...

. Administratively, all three islands form part of the city of Batam; the nearest other city to Galang is Tanjungpinang on Bintan island, about a 30-minute boat ride away. The island is connected by the

Barelang Bridge Barelang Bridge () is a chain of 6 bridges of various types built in 1997 that connect the Rempang- Galang island group in the Riau Archipelago with the principal island of Batam to its north. The smaller islands of Tonton, Nipah, and Setotok (con ...

and

. There was a

UNHCR The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and Humanitarian protection, protect refugees, Internally displaced person, forcibly displaced communities, and Statelessness, s ...

administration office established in Galang to run the Galang Refugee Camp during the 1979-1996 period. Many

Vietnamese boat people Vietnamese boat people () were refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. This migration and humanitarian crisis was at its highest in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but continued well into the earl ...

and

asylum seeker An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country, and makes in that other country a formal application for the right of asylum according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 14. A per ...

s were temporarily accommodated in the Galang camp during the determination of their

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

status and their subsequent resettlement in the United States, Australia, and some European countries. Many Vietnamese from their new resettled countries have come back to visit Galang. Today, Galang Island (and the former refugee area known as ''Sinam Camp'') is managed by Batam Industrial Development Authority (BIDA). In 1992 according to Indonesian Presidential Decree No. 28/1992, the expanded BIDA Working Area includes Rempang Island, Galang Island and several small nearby islands. BIDA built 6 bridges which were inaugurated on 25 January 1998. They provide a land connection between Batam Island - Tonton Island - Nipah Island - Setoko Island - Rempang Island - Galang Island - Galang Baru (New Galang) Island in order to develop all these islands.Tunawisma
/ref>

References

External links

*
"About Galang and refugees"
Batam Riau Archipelago Uninhabited islands of Indonesia {{RiauIslands-geo-stub

See also

References

External links