On Sunday, a boat carrying 120 Rohingya has reached the shore of Aceh, Indonesia.
This was the second time, Rohingyas were stranded near Aceh while Amnesty International urged the government to allow the boat to land.
Director of the Banda Aceh Legal Aid Institute, Syahrul Putra Muti said, “Local fishermen were not allowed to bring the refugees [ashore].”
On Sunday, fishermen found the boat in waters off the coast of Bireun regency in northern Aceh, said Badruddin Yunus, a leader of the local fishing community.
“We received reports from fishermen, there were 120 people, 51 children, 9 adult men, and 60 women,” he told local publication AcehNews.
“They threw paper at our fishermen on which they had written, and they used sign language when communicating with fishermen.”
The boat has been anchored to a fishing device about 50 miles off Aceh, he said, adding that the Navy planned to send food supplies to the boat on Tuesday.
“So far, there has been no response from the Bireuen regency administration,” Badruddin told BenarNews. “Local security authorities said they were awaiting guidance from authorities in Jakarta,” he added.
Amnesty said the fishermen had appealed to local authorities to rescue the Rohingya migrants because they had been at sea for weeks or months. Amnesty Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said, “There needs to be a joint responsibility between regional countries to conduct search and rescue so that [refugees] can avoid dangers at sea….”
As of October, at least 665 Rohingya migrants have ended up stranded in Indonesia on their way to third countries including Malaysia and Australia, according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
