Sun 06 March 2022:
After weeks at sea, more than 100 hungry and weak Rohingya Muslims were found on a beach in Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh.
According to officials, the group arrived on Jangka beach in Alue Buya Pasi, a fishing town in Bireuen region, on a rickety wooden boat early Sunday.
According to Badruddin Yunus, the chief of the local tribal fishing community, residents who noticed the 114 ethnic Rohingya aided them to land and subsequently reported their arrival to authorities.
“They look very weak from hunger and dehydration after a long and severe voyage at sea,” said Yunus, adding it wasn’t clear where the group was traveling from or where it was headed as none spoke English or Malay.
The 58 men, 21 women and 35 children were given shelter and received help from villagers, police and military, while local authorities including the coronavirus task force were helping to process them, Yunus said.
Attempts have been made by groups of Rohingya to flee the overcrowded camps in Bangladesh and sail by water to other Muslim-majority nations in the region.
Traffickers have promised the refugees a better life in Muslim-dominated Malaysia, which has been a popular destination for the boats. However, many Rohingya refugees who arrive in Malaysia are detained.
More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from Buddhist-majority Myanmar to refugee camps in Bangladesh since August 2017, when the Myanmar military launched a clearance operation in response to attacks by a rebel group.
Myanmar security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and the burning of thousands of homes.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES | FILE PHOTO
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