A mosque has provided refuge sought by over a hundred people after a land dispute and mass eviction at Bali’s Kampung Bugis village in Serangan, south Denpasar.
Homes were leveled to the ground and long-time, non-title-holding residents who had built their homes on the land were kicked out on Tuesday.
The residents did not go without resistance though, blocking the paths of destruction crews—but in the end, the crews had their way.
The Kampung Bugis eviction left around 36 households—at least 150 people—homeless. Unsure of where to go, many have fled to nearby Serangan mosque, Masjid Assyuhada.
From young children to the elderly, the families have reportedly been camping out in the pavilion area of the mosque.
“Some of us have tents. But not all are accommodated, so must stay in the pavilion hall of the mosque,” Hazan, a former Kampung Bugis resident, told Merdeka on Thursday.
These tents seem to actually be makeshift shelters with tarps as roofs, set up on the side of the road.
“My child keeps crying, wanting to sleep in his own house. Sleeping on the roadside under tarps, there’s much less heat,” another man from Kampung Bugis, Ega, told Merdeka.
With no assistance from the government yet and no other compensation following the eviction, the former Kampung Bugis residents seem to be stuck, with nowhere else to go.
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