JAKARTA: Dozens of Rohingya refugees arrived on the shores of Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh on Sunday, officials said, amid international pleas for the Southeast Asian nation to rescue hundreds of others who have been adrift for weeks on boats in the Indian Ocean.
The group, comprising 57 people, had sailed from Myanmar and was headed to Malaysia, the Indonesian Coast Guard said in a statement.
“The boat’s engine had failed and it had been stranded at sea for approximately one month,” the statement read. “From the surviving passengers, we received information that they had been sailing without an adequate supply of food.”
A group of Rohingya people landed on a beach in Ladong village, Aceh province, Indonesia, on Dec. 25, 2022. (Indonesian Coast Guard)
Eros Shidqy Putra, a member of Indonesia’s National Refugee Task Force, said the refugees arrived on Sunday morning in the waters of Aceh Besar district.
“Right now, the refugees are under the supervision of the Social Affairs Agency in Aceh Besar and the International Organization for Migration,” Putra told Arab News.
The Rohingya refugees were found by villagers in the area, according to a report by the Associated Press, citing local officials.
A boat that was carrying Rohingya refugees after their arrival at a beach in Indonesia's Aceh province on Dec. 25, 2022. (Indonesian Coast Guard)
Two boats carrying refugees, including women and children, had entered Indonesian waters near Aceh on Friday evening, according to Amnesty International, which urged the government to allow them to safely disembark.
At least five boats had left the coast of Cox’s Bazar, the largest Rohingya settlement in Bangladesh, in late November, attempting to cross the Andaman Sea to another host country.
The UN Refugee Agency cited on Saturday unconfirmed reports of one boat that had sunk, while reporting the deaths of at least 20 people on another vessel as it urged countries in the region to “help save lives.”
IOM confirmed to Arab News that they are working with the refugee task force and local government “to provide support and a safe arrival” for the Rohingya refugees.
“IOM applauds the government and local community in Indonesia for reaching out, in humanitarian spirit, sustaining assistance to those who have needed protection,” IOM’s Chief of Mission in Indonesia Louis Hoffmann said in a statement.
But another boat reportedly carrying 160 Rohingya people was still stranded in the Malacca Strait as of Sunday afternoon, a relative of one of the passengers told Arab News.
Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, a Rohingya activist in Cox’s Bazar whose 27-year-old sister and 5-year-old niece are onboard, said the boat had no supplies.
“They said: ‘We don’t have food and water,’” Khan said. “They keep crying for urgent disembarkation.”
