Over 200 Rohingya arrive by boat in Indonesia over weekend: Official
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JAKARTA - More than 200 Rohingya came ashore over the weekend in Indonesia’s Aceh province, an official said on Jan 6, amid growing numbers of arrivals by sea of the stateless population in the South-east Asian country.
The mainly Muslim Rohingya, who are originally from Myanmar and constitute the world’s largest stateless population, often escape poor conditions in refugee camps on rickety boats to Thailand or Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia between October and April, when the seas are calmer.
More than 200 Rohingya arrived on the evening of Jan 5 in the West Peureulak region of East Aceh on Sumatra island, on the western side of Indonesia, said Aceh’s fishing community chief Miftach Tjut Adek.
Mr Faisal Rahman, an official at the United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, said the agency is coordinating with the local authorities and its team was headed to West Peureulak on Jan 6.
Between October and November 2024, more than 500 Rohingya arrived in Indonesia by boat.
Almost one million Rohingya live in camps in Bangladesh in what UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has called “the biggest humanitarian refugee camp in the world”.
In Buddhist-majority Myanmar, they are regarded as foreign interlopers from South Asia, and are denied citizenship and abused.
More than 2,000 Rohingya arrived in Indonesia in 2023, UNHCR data showed, more than the combined total of arrivals in the previous four years. REUTERS
