Indonesia recovers two bodies after Rohingya boat capsizes off Aceh
REUTERS March 23, 2024
Rescuers carry the body of a Rohingya refugee recovered at sea after the boat they were on capsized off the coast near Calang, Aceh Jaya Regency, Aceh, Indonesia, March 23, 2024, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Syifa Yulinnas via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
ACEH JAYA, Indonesia, March 23 (Reuters) - Indonesian authorities
recovered two bodies from the shores of West Aceh on Saturday and said
local fishermen reported several other drowning victims washed up after a
vessel carrying Rohingya migrants capsized off the coast earlier this
week.
More than 70 Rohingya were "presumed dead or missing", which if
confirmed would be the biggest loss of life in such an incident so far
this year, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday. Seventy-five people were rescued.
"We
have evacuated two bodies from the shores. We have identified them both
as females," Mirza Saprinadi, national head of operations at
Indonesia's search and rescue agency, told reporters, adding that
immigration officers had confirmed the victims as Rohingya.
The
bodies had been carried by the current and local fishermen reported
several other drowning victims found along the western shore of Aceh
province, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, Mirza said.
For years
Rohingya have been leaving Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are
generally regarded as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied
citizenship and subjected to abuse.
More than 2,300 Rohingya arrived
in Indonesia last year, UNHCR data showed, surpassing the number of
arrivals in the previous four years combined.
The 2023 toll of at
least 569 Rohingya dead or missing while trying to flee Myanmar or
Bangladesh was the highest since 2014, the UNHCR said in January.
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