JAKARTA – Greater than 110 Rohingya refugees got here ashore in Indonesia’s Aceh province on Saturday after their boat almost sank, officers from the U.N. refugee company and native authorities mentioned, as rising numbers arrive by sea within the Southeast Asian nation.
The primarily Muslim Rohingya, who’re initially from Myanmar and represent the world’s largest stateless inhabitants, normally escape poor circumstances in refugee camps on rickety boats to Thailand or Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia between October and April, when the seas are calmer.
About 400 Rohingya arrived by boat final month in Aceh and North Sumatra province.
Largely ladies and kids, the Rohingya who landed on Saturday had been introduced ashore after their boat bumped into difficulties, an official from the East Aceh regional authorities, Syamsul Bahri, was quoted as saying by state information company Antara.
“They were rescued by fishermen because the boat they were on allegedly sustained some damage and nearly sank,” Syamsul mentioned.
Faisal Rahman, a UNHCR official, mentioned a complete of 116 refugees got here ashore in East Aceh’s Birem Bayeun district.
Virtually 1 million Rohingya reside in camps in Bangladesh in what U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has referred to as “the biggest humanitarian refugee camp in the world”.
In Buddhist-majority Myanmar they’re considered international interlopers from South Asia and are denied citizenship and subjected to abuse.
Greater than 2,000 Rohingya arrived in Indonesia final yr, UNHCR knowledge confirmed, greater than the mixed complete of arrivals within the earlier 4 years.
Indonesia, which isn’t a signatory of the U.N. refugee conference, has mentioned it has no capability to accommodate refugees, and a few Rohingya have confronted hostility within the nation as locals develop into pissed off by the rise in arrivals.
