(Banda Aceh) More than 300 Rohingya refugees landed overnight from Sunday to Monday on the coasts of western Indonesia, which since November has been facing the largest influx of these refugees since 2015.
Among them, 135 people, mainly women and children, were housed in temporary shelters during a visit by a UN representative.
The Rohingya, mainly Muslims, face significant persecution in Burma, a predominantly Buddhist country. The 2017 crackdown was the subject of a United Nations investigation for genocide and many Rohingya crossed the border to seek refuge in neighboring Bangladesh.
Since mid-November, more than 1,000 members of this Muslim minority persecuted in Burma have fled their camps in Bangladesh, where living conditions are miserable, to reach the province of Aceh by sea.
This is the largest movement of Rohingya migration to Indonesia since 2015, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).
The group of 135 people “was transferred to a campsite […]. They will join other Rohingya refugees who were already there,” Aceh Besar acting head Muhammad Iswanto said on Sunday evening.
At sea for a month
A first group of 180 Rohingya landed around 3 a.m. in the Pidie region, in the province of Aceh (north of the island of Sumatra), noted an AFP journalist.
Another boat carrying some 135 people arrived a few hours later on a neighboring coast of Aceh Besar, in the same province located in the western tip of Indonesia, about 2,000 km from Bangladesh.
“We have been at sea for almost a month and 15 days. […] We left on the 1ster November,” said Muhammad Shohibul Islam, 24, one of the exiles.
PHOTO CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A Rohingya refugee with her child on the beach in Laweueng, Indonesia, December 10, 2023.
The refugees had gathered in a plantation near the shore where locals gave them water, noted an AFP journalist. Some were lying on the ground, trying to rest after this long and perilous journey.
The police found United Nations refugee cards in a box transported by the Rohingya, noted an AFP journalist.
“We noticed that some of these refugees have refugee cards. So let’s first let them be registered again by UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration [avant d’agir davantage] “, declared local police chief Rolly Yuiza Away, reached by telephone.
In Pidie, the authorities blocked the refugees on the beach where they disembarked, with mothers cradling their children in their arms, some of whom were naked, according to an AFP journalist on site.
Local authorities initially assured that they would not take responsibility for providing tents to refugees or meeting any other needs.
The government “will not cover any expenses”, declared Muslim, the head of the Pidie Social Agency, who like many Indonesians only goes by one name, adding that there was “no more room left” for emergency accommodation.
Hostility
Many Aceh residents have long been sensitive to the plight of this Muslim minority. But some are now showing hostility towards them, threatening to send them back to the sea.
On Wednesday, clashes broke out between more than a hundred residents and the police, during a demonstration demanding the movement of refugees who arrived by boat last week on the island of Sabang.
“The problem arose when the refugees arrived on the beach and we didn’t know where to receive them,” said Ann Maymann, representative of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Indonesia. “It’s the government that must decide. […] So I’m sure we can handle this,” said Mme Maymann, visiting Aceh this Sunday.
Earlier, Faisal Rahman, who works with the UNHCR, acknowledged that accommodation centers were over capacity, but said that “the government is struggling to provide shelter because the number of arriving refugees is very high.”
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Friday that his government suspected a human trafficking network of being behind the massive influx of refugees.
Indonesia, which is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, says it is not obliged to take them.