-
Regional
More Rohingya refugees land in Indonesia, pushing weekly total past 1,000
Around 200 Rohingya refugees arrived in Indonesia’s westernmost province by sea overnight, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said Wednesday, bringing the total number of arrivals in the last week to more than 1,000. Thousands of the mostly Muslim Rohingya, a persecuted minority from Myanmar, risk their lives each year on long and expensive sea journeys, often in flimsy boats, to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia. The latest group, which included men, women and children, landed in the small city of Sabang in Aceh Province at the tip of northern Sumatra at around 11pm local time on Tuesday.“The mayor, he said 200. He informed us about the disembarkation. The team will depart to Sabang early tomorrow morning,” UNHCR protection associate Faisal Rahman told AFP. Members of the local community said the number could be higher, with estimates as high as 360 refugees landing, said Rahman. Locals in Aceh last week turned away several boat arrivals from Bangladesh, saying they did not have the resources to accept the desperate refugees who in most cases have spent weeks at sea. Images and footage seen by AFP showed the latest arrivals sitting in rows on a beach in Sabang instead of being…
Read More »