Over 130 Rohingya refugees arrive in Indonesia’s Aceh
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JAKARTA – More than 130 Rohingya refugees landed on the shores of Indonesia’s Aceh province on Feb 1, an official at the UN refugee agency said, the latest in a series of such arrivals that have drawn controversy in the South-east Asian country.
The Rohingyas, a persecuted religious minority in Myanmar, have faced rejection and hostility from locals in Aceh when they land ashore. Nearly 2,000 of them have arrived since October 2023, data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) showed.
Mr Faisal Rahman, protection associate at the UNHCR in Indonesia, said more than 130 Rohingya refugees arrived in the East Aceh area on Feb 1 morning.
For years, Rohingyas have been leaving Myanmar, where they are generally regarded as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship and subjected to abuse.
They often travel by rickety boats to escape poor conditions there or in camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. Some travel to Indonesia and Malaysia between November and April, when the seas are calmer.
In Indonesia, they have faced hostility.
In December 2023, a group of university students in the city of Banda Aceh stormed a convention centre
The UNHCR called the incident a “mob attack” that was the result of a coordinated online campaign of misinformation and hate speech.
At least 569 Rohingyas had died or gone missing while trying to flee Myanmar or Bangladesh in 2023, the highest toll since 2014, the UNHCR said in January. REUTERS
