Officials have reported that more than 100 Rohingya refugees, including women and children, have arrived in Indonesia’s westernmost province. However, local residents have threatened to push them back out to sea.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) stated that hundreds more refugees, mostly Muslims from Myanmar, are stranded on two unseaworthy vessels in the Andaman Sea.
Last month, over 1,000 Rohingya refugees arrived in Aceh province, marking the largest influx of Rohingya in Indonesia since 2015.
The most recent group of Rohingya refugees landed on Le Meulee beach on Sabang Island before sunrise on Saturday, according to Miftah Cut Ade, the chief of the fishing community in Aceh.
“Most of them are women and children, and they are in a vulnerable state,” he said.
Although Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, the country has a history of accepting refugees who arrive on its shores.
Nearly one million Rohingya currently reside in refugee camps near Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh, with most fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.
Every year, thousands of Rohingya risk their lives on long and costly sea journeys, often in flimsy boats departing from Bangladesh, in an attempt to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.
A 19-year-old Rohingya, who identified himself as Deluarsah, stated that the group left Bangladesh in early November and spent over 20 days at sea under perilous conditions.
“We came here on a single boat. The ocean is very dangerous,” Deluarsah said, expressing his happiness at having landed in Indonesia.
The UNHCR has called on countries in the Andaman Sea region to “promptly deploy their full search and rescue capabilities” to locate the other two boats, which have experienced engine failure and are “drifting aimlessly.”
“UNHCR is concerned that food and water supplies may be running out, and there is a significant risk of fatalities in the coming days if people are not rescued and brought to safety,” the agency stated in a press release.
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