Benar News
Pizaro Gozali Idrus
2023.11.16
Jakarta
Rohingya refugees react
after reaching the beach by swimming as others are stranded on a boat
after villagers decided not to allow them to land but gave them water
and food in Bireuen district, Aceh province, Indonesia, Nov. 16, 2023. [Amanda Jufrian/AFP]More than 200 Rohingya reached Indonesia’s Aceh
province in a boat on Thursday, bringing the number of new arrivals this
week to nearly 600, but villagers in separate locations forced the
latest batch to return to sea, officials said.
The
foreign ministry said people smugglers had exploited Indonesia’s
generosity over the years in allowing in members of the stateless and
persecuted minority group from Myanmar, while police said that locals
were complaining about bad behavior by some among the 1,000-odd Rohingya
sheltering in Aceh.
The wooden boat,
which had been adrift for several days, first made its appearance on
Thursday near the shore of Bireuen district, where police and the
military tried to persuade villagers to let the refugees land on
humanitarian grounds, said a spokesman for the Bireuen police.
But
the villagers refused, saying they had unpleasant experiences with
Rohingya who arrived on previous occasions and had been “troublesome,”
said spokesman Marzuki, who goes by one name.
“We negotiated, but the locals refused to accept them,” the police official told BenarNews.
The
police and the military have the power to override the locals, but
Marzuki didn’t say why officials did not use that authority.
Jolly
Ronny Mamarimbing, an intelligence officer for the Bireuen police, said
the Rohingya were given food and drinks, and five of them who appeared
very unwell were allowed to disembark and stay on in the village.
The
boat then left and attempted to dock at Lhokseumawe, in northern Aceh,
but was met with similar resistance from locals there, said Salman
Alfarisi, a local police spokesman.
“They were going to [set] sail again, but their boat had engine trouble,” he said.
According to fishermen, Rohingya on those boats had sailed from the refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh. One of the refugees on the boat that was turned away on Thursday, told the Agence France-Presse news agency that its passengers had also left Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district near the Myanmar border, where the crowded camps are located.
The camps host some 1 million Rohingya, nearly 740,000 of whom escaped a military crackdown in 2017, which the U.N. later described as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” A Muslim minority, the Rohingya have faced decades of systematic discrimination, statelessness and targeted violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, has a history of welcoming Rohingya, who are considered one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.
In 2015, Indonesia allowed thousands of Rohingya to disembark on its shores, along with migrants from Bangladesh, after they were stranded at sea for months.
Indonesia has no legal or practical obligation to host refugees, nor can it offer them a permanent solution, because it is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, said Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, a spokesman for Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry.
“Ironically, many countries that are parties to the convention have closed their doors and even implemented push-back policies against the refugees,” he said in a statement Thursday.
“Indonesia’s kindness in providing temporary shelter has been exploited by people smugglers who seek financial gain from the refugees without caring about the high risk they face, especially vulnerable groups such as women and children,” he said.
UNHCR ready to assist
The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) urged the Indonesian government to keep its borders open to refugees.
“UNHCR is ready to assist the government, the authorities and the community in carrying out efforts to save the lives of refugees,” Mitra Salima, spokeswoman for the agency in Indonesia, told BenarNews.
“But we hope they will still provide assistance, considering there are many vulnerable women and children.”
In January, Jakarta called for regional cooperation to conduct rescue operations for Rohingya stranded at sea, so that Indonesia wouldn’t have to disproportionately bear the burden of this task.
Indonesia does not grant asylum or legal status to refugees.
Refugees who arrive in Indonesia are usually confined to temporary shelters or detention centers, and face an uncertain future, as they have no access to formal education and jobs.
Meanwhile, human rights groups have said that the numbers of Rohingya leaving for third countries further highlight the dire conditions at the Cox’s Bazar camps and the deteriorating situation in Myanmar after the February 2021 military coup.
Many Rohingya have grown desperate because they see no hope of being repatriated to Myanmar, which is convulsed with violence following the coup, human rights advocates and NGOs in the region have said.
In Bangladesh, the refugees cannot work or properly educate their children.
To flee what feels like a hopeless situation, many undertake perilous journeys by sea, often on ramshackle boats, so they can lead a better life in one of the Southeast Asian nations, where they can access schools and jobs.
Last year was the deadliest since 2014 for Rohingya attempting such sea voyages. At least 348 individuals died or went missing at sea, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said.
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