Nearly 200 Rohingya refugees in two boats carrying them, including many women and children, arrived in Indonesia’s westernmost province on Tuesday, this is the largest number of the persecuted Myanmar minority to arrive in months. Despite being born in Myanmar, the Rohingya are widely regarded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Every year, thousands of mostly Muslim Rohingya risk their lives on long and expensive sea journeys, often in fragile boats, to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.
According to Hamdani, a representative for the North Aceh government, 196 refugees, including 27 women and 18 children, arrived just before the sunrise. He told the media that a second boat carrying 119 Rohingya arrived in the province morning after being at sea for more than ten days. He also said that refugees are in good health and they are not sure where to take them.
Source: The Static Times
According to Marfian, a fishing community spokesperson, some of the new arrivals immediately fled inland. Ten of them ran away to the nearby hills. It appears that they were the middlemen who brought the refugees to the area on purpose. However, the local government reported only seven people fleeing.
Local authorities and residents were assisting the refugees. The local people have provided food and drink for them as it is their habit of helping stranded Rohingyas. Images shared with the press showed the tired-looking refugees, including women holding babies, waiting for assistance on the beach.
Source: TOI
According to the United Nation refugee agency, every year more than 2,000 Rohingya are expected to be attempting the unsafe journey to Southeast Asian countries in 2023. Nearly 200 Rohingya died or went missing last year while attempting unsafe sea crossings. 184 Rohingya refugees arrived in the eastern Aceh town of Peureulak in March after being dropped at sea by boat and they were forced to return immediately.
According to local authorities, they were in contact with the Indonesian immigration and foreign ministers, as well as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to take care of them.
After a military crackdown that included mass killings and rape, more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar in 2017. The rights groups says “many civilians were killed and villages have been burnt.” Myanmar’s authorities have stated that they are fighting an insurgency and deny committing systematic atrocities.
According to the foreign ministry, since November of last year, Indonesia has registered 918 Rohingya who arrived in Aceh, Indonesia’s westernmost region, after traveling south in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. This compares to 180 for the entire year of 2021.
Source: CNN
Amnesty International cited in their website last year for the welfare of many of the refugees arriving in Indonesia. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea both include obligations to assist those in distress at sea. All states must support people from suffering and people who are found at sea also in danger of being lost.
According to the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, survivors of refugee incidents should be assisted regardless of their nationality, immigration status, or the circumstances in which they are discovered. Government must ensure that all operations and procedures, such as screening and assessing the status of rescued persons, are carried out after their arrival to a safe location.
Authorities should focus on the refugee management as more desperate and displaced people embark on such high-risk journeys, close monitoring, prompt response, and redressal mechanisms within the region become increasingly important to ensure enhanced protection for displaced or stateless people.
