Dozens of hungry and weak Rohingya refugees were found on a beach in Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh after weeks of sea traffic, officials said.
According to local police chief Rolly Yuiza Away, the group of 58 men arrived early Sunday at Indrapatra beach in Ladong, a fishing village in the Aceh Besar district.
Villagers, who saw the men from the predominantly Muslim ethnic group on a shaky wooden boat, helped them land and then reported their arrival to the authorities, he said.
“They look very weak due to hunger and dehydration. Some of them are ill after a long and difficult sea journey,” Away said, adding that the men received food and water from villagers and others while they waited for further instructions from the immigration department and local officials in Aceh.
At least three of the men were taken to a health clinic for medical care, and others also received various medical treatments, Away said.
The UN and other groups on Friday called on countries in South Asia to rescue up to 190 people, believed to be Rohingya refugees, aboard a small boat that has been floating in the Andaman Sea for several weeks.
“People on board have reportedly remained at sea for a month now in disastrous conditions with insufficient food or water, with no action taken by states in the region to save lives,” the UN refugee agency UNHCR said in a statement. “Many of them are women and children. Up to 20 people reportedly died on the seaworthy ship during the trip.”
Away said it wasn’t immediately clear where the group was traveling from or whether they were part of the group of 190 Rohingya refugees who were drifted in the Andaman Sea. However, one of the men, who spoke some Malay, stated that he had been at sea for more than a month and landed in Malaysia to find a better life and a better job.
Dangerous trips
More than 700,000 Rohingya have been forcibly expelled from the majority Buddhist Myanmar to refugee camps in Bangladesh since August 2017, when the Myanmar military launched an eviction operation in response to attacks by a rebel group. Myanmar security forces were accused of mass rapes, murders and the burning of thousands of homes.
Rohingya, who are widely regarded by the state as invaders from Bangladesh, are denied citizenship — as well as access to healthcare and education — and often require travel permits.
Thousands of Rohingya risk their lives every year and make dangerous trips to other majority-Muslim countries in the region.
The UNHCR said earlier this month that there had been a “dramatic” increase in such trips, partly due to worsening conditions in the refugee camps where they are being held in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.
An estimated 1,920, mostly Rohingya, left Myanmar and Bangladesh by sea between January and November this year, compared with just 287 in 2021, according to UNHCR.
Malaysia was a frequent destination for the boats, and although human traffickers promise refugees a better life there, many of them who land in the country face imprisonment.
Although Indonesia has not signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, according to UNHCR, a presidential decree from 2016 provides a national legal framework that regulates the treatment of refugees on boats in distress near Indonesia and helps them disembark.
These regulations have been implemented for years, most recently last month when around 219 Rohingya refugees, including 63 women and 40 children, were rescued aboard two shaky boats off the coast of North Aceh district.
On Thursday, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, called on governments in South and Southeast Asia to “immediately and urgently coordinate the search and rescue of this boat and to ensure the safe disembarkation of those on board before more lives die.”
“As many people around the world prepare to enjoy the Christmas season and ring in a new year, boats carrying desperate Rohingya men, women and young children set off on dangerous journeys in unseaworthy ships,” Andrews said in a statement.