BANDA ACEH: A wooden boat carrying nearly 200 Rohingya refugees, a majority of them women and children, landed on Indonesia’s western coast on Sunday, police said.
The ship is the fifth boat carrying Rohingya refugees to land in Indonesia since November, according to authorities.
Thousands of the mostly Muslim Rohingya, heavily persecuted in Myanmar, risk their lives each year on long and expensive sea journeys — often in poor-quality boats — in an attempt to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.
The wooden vessel — which carried 69 men, 75 women and 40 children — arrived at around 02:30 p.m. local time (0730 am GMT) on a beach in Indonesia’s westernmost province of Aceh, local police chief Irwan Fahmi Ramli said Sunday.
“They are generally healthy, but there is one pregnant woman among them, and four people are sick,” Ramli said.
“We had coordinated with doctors who will come here to conduct an initial health check of these refugees, particularly those who are sick.”
He added that the refugees will be transferred to a local government facility.
According to one of the passengers, the boat departed Bangladesh on December 10.
“We feel very happy because we arrived here. Already, our engine is damaged and also we don’t have food in the boat,” 26-year-old Fairus told reporters.
Around a million Rohingya were estimated to be living in refugee camps in Bangladesh after they fled persecution in neighboring Myanmar in 2017.
Four vessels carrying Rohingya refugees have already landed in Indonesia in November and December last year, carrying a total of more than 400 passengers.
More than 2,000 Rohingya are believed to have attempted the risky journey in 2022, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR — at levels similar to 2020.
The agency estimated nearly 200 Rohingya have died or remain missing after attempting hazardous sea crossings last year.
But the figure could rise after relatives of around 180 Rohingya refugees that were on another vessel drifting at sea for weeks lost contact and were feared dead.
The UNHCR could not confirm their deaths.
But spokesman Babar Baloch said if true, it would make 2022 the deadliest year for Rohingya crossings since 2013 and 2014, when more than 900 and 700 were reported dead or missing respectively.
Relatively affluent Malaysia is a favored destination for the refugees, but many land first in Muslim-majority Indonesia, seen as more welcoming.
Nearly 200 Rohingya refugees land in Indonesia in latest boat arrival
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Nearly 200 Rohingya refugees land in Indonesia in latest boat arrival
- Thousands of the mostly Muslim Rohingya risk their lives each year on long sea journeys in an attempt to reach Malaysia or Indonesia
Sri Lanka hospital releases 22 rescued Iranian sailors
- Sri Lankan authorities said the survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka discharged from hospital 22 Iranian sailors who were plucked from life rafts after their warship was sunk by a US submarine, officials said Sunday.
The sailors were treated at Karapitiya Hospital in the southern port city of Galle since Wednesday after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.
“Another 10 are still undergoing treatment,” a medical officer at the hospital told AFP.
He said the bodies of 84 Iranians retrieved from the Indian Ocean were also at the hospital.
Those discharged from hospital overnight had been taken to a beach resort in the same district.
Sri Lankan authorities said the survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law, and the government had contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross for assistance.
The island is also providing safe haven for another 219 Iranian sailors from a second ship, the IRIS Bushehr, that was allowed to berth a day after the Dena was sunk.
Sailors from the Bushehr have been moved to a Sri Lanka Navy camp at Welisara, just north of the capital Colombo, and their ship taken over by Sri Lanka’s navy.
Sri Lanka announced it was taking the Bushehr to the north-eastern port of Trincomalee, but an engine failure and other technical and administrative issues had delayed the movement, a navy spokesman said.
Sri Lanka has denied claims that it was under pressure from Washington not to allow the Iranians to return home, and said Colombo will be guided solely by international law and its own domestic legislation.
A US State Department spokesperson said the disposition of the Bushehr crew and Iranian sailors rescued at sea was up to Sri Lanka.
“The United States, of course, respects and recognizes Sri Lanka’s sovereignty in the handling of this situation,” the spokesperson told AFP in Washington.
India, meanwhile, said Saturday that it had allowed a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock in one of its ports on “humane” grounds after it too reported engine problems.
The three ships were part of a multi-national fleet review held by India before the war in the Middle East started last week.
“I think it was the humane thing to do, and I think we were guided by that principle,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Saturday.
The Lavan docked in the south-west Indian port of Kochi on Wednesday.
“A lot of the people on board were young cadets. They have disembarked and are in a nearby facility,” Jaishankar said.
