Rohingya refugees reach Indonesian sea after one month
According to local officials, dozens of Rohingya refugees in a wooden boat with a broken motor have floated into a beach in western Indonesia. All of the refugees are male.
After being at sea for a month, they are described as weak and hungry. Three males at least were brought to the hospital. If they are among the at least 150 Rohingya who fell trapped at sea weeks ago, it is unclear. In their native country of Myanmar, the Rohingya are an ethnic group that faces persecution (Burma).
According to Aceh provincial police spokeswoman Winardy, the wooden boat carrying 57 men arrived on Sunday morning.
“The boat had a broken engine and it was carried by the wind to a shore in Ladong Village in Aceh Besar [district],” the spokesman said,”They said they have been drifting at sea for a month.”
According to a local immigration officer, the migrants will spend a short time at a government facility. 58 men, according to some media accounts, arrived in Aceh. Where the migrants had set sail from was not immediately known.
Last week, the UN called on countries in South East Asia’s Andaman Sea region to help a small fishing boat carrying at least 150 Rohingya refugees that had been drifting without power since leaving Bangladesh for two weeks.
At the time, passengers on the boat who were reached through satellite phone reported that a lot of people, including children, had already passed away. They claimed that there was a shortage of food and water.
The UN raised concern over the possibility that the fishing boat had sunk on Sunday. Many Muslims from the Rohingya ethnic group fled to Bangladesh in 2017 to avoid a genocide campaign that the military of Myanmar had started.
Rohingya refugees reach Indonesian sea after one month
They have been making high-risk sea voyages this time of year, after the monsoon in the area has gone, in an effort to flee from congested refugee camps in southern Bangladesh.
The worsening conditions in the camps have increased their numbers, and more Rohingya who is still in Myanmar are attempting to leave as a result of the military coup there last year. In the previous two months, at least five boats are known to have departed.
