On 16 and 17 November 2025, Mrs Irene Sokoy, a pregnant indigenous Papuan woman living on one of the small islands in Lake Sentani, Jayapura Regency, Papua Province, died together with her unborn baby after being denied emergency care by four hospitals in Jayapura Regency and Jayapura City, Papua Province, in West Papua (see photo on top).
Mrs Sokoy went into labour on 16 November and was first taken by speedboat to the Yowari Regional Public Hospital (RSUD Yowari). She was not provided with timely life-saving obstetric surgery for more than 14 hours and was repeatedly referred onwards without effective stabilisation and coordination. The incident caused outrage and triggered government responses, given that the tragedy unfolded in Jayapura, the most developed and largest urban settlement in the entire West Papua region. This allows the conclusion that the health reality in other parts of the region is even worse. Maternal and infant mortality in the six Papuan provinces remains the highest in Indonesia, far above national averages, despite large special autonomy funds being channelled to push development in West Papua for more than 20 years.
After admission to the RSUD Yowari, Mrs Irene Sokoy was examined and then transferred to the delivery room. When her waters broke and signs of foetal distress appeared, doctors wanted to perform a caesarean section, but no obstetrician was available at RSUD Yowari. Mrs Sokoy was referred to the Dian Harapan Hospital in Waena, Jayapura City, where she was reportedly rejected because all BPJS class 3 (the lowest class in the Indonesian National Health Insurance Scheme) rooms were full. She was brought to Abepura Regional Public Hospital (RSUD Abepura) but was rejected again because the operating theatre was under renovation. She was finally admitted to the Bhayangkara Police Hospital, which allegedly demanded a cash deposit of IDR 4 million despite her emergency condition and BPJS coverage. Despite having health coverage, no hospital assumed responsibility for immediate life-saving treatment. During the odyssey, Mrs Sokoy's condition deteriorated inside the ambulance. She and her unborn baby died inside the ambulance en route in the early hours of 17 November 2025.
The case has triggered strong public outrage and official reactions. Papua Governor Mathius Derek Fakhiri visited the family, publicly apologised, and warned that hospital directors under provincial authority who refuse patients will be removed. At the national level, President Prabowo Subianto ordered an immediate audit of hospitals and health offices in the Papua Province, while the Ministry of Health and the Inspectorate General of the Ministry of Home Affairs have deployed audit and investigation teams focusing on RSUD Yowari, RSUD Abepura, and other implicated facilities.
Across the Papuan provinces in eastern Indonesia (West Papua), indigenous Papuan communities face a pattern of dangerous neglect in healthcare, particularly in emergency and referral services. Local human rights defenders report that restrictive policies and practices around essential medicines, combined with chronic shortages of facilities, equipment, and specialist doctors in hospitals, have contributed to hundreds of preventable deaths. An administrative system that ties access to treatment to formal identity documents and BPJS health insurance systematically disadvantages indigenous Papuan patients who lack ID cards or BPJS registration, or who are registered only for low-tier (class 3) schemes. Even in the provincial capital area around Jayapura City and Jayapura Regency, Papua Province, where facilities and personnel should be relatively complete, mortality rates remain high; patients from rural and conflict-affected districts in West Papua face even greater barriers. Cases like the death of Mrs Sokoy or the repeated denial of medical treatment to Mr Kiliur Wakerkwa despite suffering acute injuries in September 2025 illustrate a wider pattern in which hospitals repeatedly refuse or delay life-saving care on administrative status or ability to pay, undermining the right to life and the right to health of indigenous Papuan patients.
Human rights analysis
From a human rights perspective, the death of Mrs Irene Sokoy and the stillbirth of her baby constitute a preventable maternal death resulting from denial and obstruction of emergency obstetric care, in violation of the right to life and the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Under national law, such conduct would breach Article 174 of Law No. 17/2023 on Health, which obliges all health facilities to treat critical cases, prohibits refusal of emergency patients, and bans advance payment demands or administrative delays in emergencies. The sequence of refusals, delays, and demands for payment by four hospitals in Jayapura Regency and Jayapura City appears to violate the right to life and the right to the highest attainable standard of health, including sexual and reproductive health, as guaranteed under the ICCPR, ICESCR, CEDAW, and CRC. The reported demand for a cash deposit from a poor, indigenous Papuan BPJS patient, combined with repeated referrals without stabilisation or timely caesarean section, suggests discriminatory and degrading treatment of an indigenous woman in a life-threatening situation and may amount to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment in a medical setting.
The State has the duty to ensure an effective, prompt, thorough, independent, and impartial investigation, in addition to the internal audits currently initiated by health and administrative authorities. Indonesia must examine not only individual negligence but also structural failings in the health system in the Papuan provinces, including the breakdown of the referral chain, the lack of 24-hour PONEK capacity, and entrenched financial and geographic barriers for indigenous Papuan women.
Where evidence confirms unlawful refusal of care, negligent omissions, or unlawful financial demands, the authorities should pursue criminal accountability under the Indonesian Criminal Code, apply appropriate administrative sanctions under hospital and health legislation, and provide effective remedies to Mrs Sokoy's family. More broadly, the State is required to adopt concrete, time-bound measures to reduce the extremely high maternal and infant mortality rates in all Papuan Provinces, ensuring that indigenous women in remote communities enjoy equal, non-discriminatory access to essential maternal health services.