Nearly 200 Rohingyas, a persecuted Muslim minority in Burma, landed in Indonesia on Monday, according to Indonesian authorities. This is the fourth such refugee landing since last November.
In total, “185 Rohingya migrants landed in Pidie”, including 83 men, 70 women and 32 children, according to the local police spokesperson. The wooden boat arrived at the end of the day on a beach in the province of Aceh, in the far west of Indonesia.
Successive rescues
Every year, thousands of Rohingyas risk their lives, often on flimsy ships, to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia. Some of Monday’s new arrivals, very weak and emaciated and suffering from dehydration, were put on a drip.
No official details on the journey of the survivors have been communicated. A young passenger said he had departed from Bangladesh, a country neighboring Burma where many Rohingyas are refugees. “We came from a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh in the hope that Indonesia will give us the opportunity to study,” said the 14-year-old boy.
Several boats carrying Rohingyas have been reported adrift in the Indian Ocean, including a boat of 180 refugees with whom their relatives in Bangladesh had lost contact, according to UNHCR. This Sunday, another boat carrying 57 refugees arrived in Aceh province. In November, two boats carrying a total of 229 Rohingya disembarked at the same location.