Weeping, weak and soaked, Rohingya refugees rescued from hull of capsized boat

abc News
ByREZA SAIFULLAH Associated Press and EDNA TARIGAN Associated Press
March 21, 2024, 

An Indonesian search and rescue ship has located a capsized wooden boat that had been carrying dozens of Rohingya Muslim refugees, and began pulling survivors who had been standing on its hull to safety

MEULABOH, Indonesia -- An Indonesian search and rescue ship on Thursday located a capsized wooden boat that had been carrying dozens of Rohingya Muslim refugees, and began pulling survivors who had been standing on its hull to safety.

Terror At Sea: Migrants Tell Of 200-Day Ordeal

THE ASEAN POST

13 September 2020 

This photo taken on 8 September, 2020 shows a group of Rohingya men sleeping on a pile of donated clothes at a transit camp on the beach in Lhokseumawe on the northern coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island. (AFP Photo)

When hundreds of Rohingya refugees paid traffickers to escape their squalid camp in Bangladesh, they were promised a new life in Malaysia after just one week at sea.

Instead, the group of mostly women and children suffered more than 200 days of terror on the high seas, until they landed this week on Indonesia's northern coast, where they are now back in refugee tents.

Rohingya refugee landing in Aceh dies of respiratory illness

THE JAKARTAPOST
News Desk
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta / Thu, September 10, 2020

Ninety-four Rohingya refugees, comprising 15 men, 49 women and 30 children, were found stranded on a boat 4 miles from the coast of Seunuddon in North Aceh regency, Aceh, on June 24. (Antara/Nova Wahyudi)

Midshalimah, 21, a Rohingya refugee who was among hundreds who arrived in Aceh early on Monday, has reportedly died from some form of respiratory illness.

Lhokseumawe city public relations head Marzuki said on Wednesday that Midshalimah had complained of shortness of breath upon landing at Ujong Blang Beach in Lhokseumawe just after midnight.

Nearly 300 Rohingya refugees land in Indonesia after six months at sea

CNBC NEWS

Sept. 7, 2020,

By Reuters

“The smugglers ... were basically keeping them hostage on the boat,” said the director of a non-profit group focusing on the Rohingya crisis.

LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia — Almost 300 Rohingya refugees believed to have been at sea for six months landed in Indonesia’s Aceh province early on Monday, Indonesian authorities said.

Acehnese police said a wooden boat carrying the Rohingya was spotted by local fishermen several miles off the coast of Lhokseumawe, before landing at Ujung Blang Beach just after midnight.

Rohingya refugees found alive on Malaysian islet after fears they had drowned

EXPRESS & STAR
Jul 27, 2020

There has been a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Burma amid a military crackdown.

 Rescued Rohingya refugees on a beach on Rebak Island off the resort island of Langkawi, Malaysia (Malaysian Maritime Enforcement/AP)

Malaysian authorities said they found 26 Rohingya Muslims, including women and children, hiding on a northern islet after they were initially feared drowned after jumping off a fishing boat.

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency launched a search for the group after one Rohingya migrant found on the islet off the northern resort island of Langkawi told investigators that at least 24 other Rohingya were missing.

Two dozen Rohingya refugees die after jumping from boat near Thailand

MALAYSIA SUN
Voice of America
27 Jul 2020,

• Malaysian officials say 24 Rohingya migrants are feared drowned off a Malaysian resort island near Thailand.
• Malaysian authorities launched a search and rescue operation on Sunday for the Rohingya refugees who went missing after jumping into the water from a boat and attempting to swim to the ...
• Malaysia's coastguard said 25 people had tried to swim to shore late Saturday, but only one of them, identified as Nor Hossain, 27, made it to the island.

Malaysia finds Rohingya feared drowned hiding on island

Aljazeera
27th July 2020

Malaysia has stepped up patrols around its maritime borders as Rohingya attempt to reach the country by boat.

Malaysia has stepped up patrols in waters near Langkawi island since the start of the coronavirus pandemic [File: Olivia Harris/Reuters]

Twenty-six Rohingya refugees, who had been feared drowned while trying to swim ashore close to the Malaysian resort island of Langkawi, have been found alive, hiding in the vegetation on a nearby islet, a senior coastguard official said on Monday.

Malaysia does not recognise refugee status, but the country is a common destination for the mostly Muslim Rohingya, hundreds of thousands of whom live in densely populated camps in Bangladesh after escaping a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.

Dozens of Rohingya migrants feared drowned off Malaysia coast

 Aljazeera
26th July 2020


At least 24 missing and one person believed to have survived after he swam to shore on the resort island of Langkawi.

In recent months, Malaysian authorities have been trying to stop Rohingya from entering over coronavirus fears [File: Antara Foto/Reuters]

A Rohingya migrant is feared to be the only survivor from a boat carrying at least two dozen asylum seekers that is believed to have run into difficulty off the Malaysian coast near Thailand, a coastguard official said on Sunday.

Mohamad Zawawi Abdullah, coastguard chief for the northern states of Kedah and Perlis, said the 27-year-old named Nor Hossain was detained by police after he swam to shore on the resort island of Langkawi.

24 Rohingya migrants feared drowned in Langkawi waters

Bernama.com

Sunday, 26 Jul 2020  

LANGKAWI, July 26 -- Twenty-four migrants, believed to be Rohingyas, are feared to have drowned off the west coast of the island last night, according to a migrant who claimed to be a survivor.

Kedah and Perlis Maritime Director First Admiral Mohd Zawawi Abdullah said the agency acted after receiving information that an illegal migrant and 24 others had jumped off a boat at about 8 pm.

Details are sketchy, however, as to why they decided to abandon the vessel.

Mohd Zawawi said the sole survivor, named as Nor Hossain, 27, told police he was the only one among the group who swam safely to shore.

25 Rohingya children arrived in Aceh without parents: Retno Marsudi

ANTARA NEWS
9th July 2020

Volunteers of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) in Lhokseumawe, Aceh, distribute basic necessities, such as food and clothes for prayers, to Rohingya refugees. ANTARA/HO-The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Public Relations 

" There are 25 children, aged 5-17 years, (who have) arrived without accompanying families in this group"

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Twenty-five Rohingya children, aged between 5 and 17 years, who are currently being sheltered in Aceh arrived without their parents, according to Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi.

"There are 25 children, aged 5-17 years, (who have) arrived without accompanying families in this group," she told the press at the Presidential Palace here on Thursday.

Rescued Rohingya grateful for local support after 120 days stranded at sea

European Commission
ECHO
 3 Jul 2020

 EU partner IOM Indonesia continues to provide round-the-clock care to the 99 Rohingya rescued and allowed to disembark in North Aceh last week after more than 120 days stranded at sea. Concerns are raising about another boat with 500 Rohingya on board, according to authorities in Jakarta.

Malaysian officials have also reported that at least 300 are on a vessel off the Coast of Koh Adang Island in Thailand. No further details are available but roughly, 1,400 Rohingya have been stranded at sea during the 2020 sailing season, which typically ends with the arrival of the monsoon in late May. At least 130 have died according to various estimates.

Rohingya find sanctuary in NW Indonesia

AA

Pizaro Gozali Idrus 

JAKARTA

30.06.2020

'We had to survive for 4 months at sea with limited food stocks,' says refugee after rejection from different countries 

After being adrift in the sea for months, Zaiburrahman, 34, said he was so grateful when he finally landed on the northwestern Indonesian coast.

Zaiburrahman, a Rohingya refugee, said he and 113 others on board had to survive for four months at sea with limited food stocks before making it to Aceh.

"We didn't have a lot of food," Zaiburrahman told Anadolu Agency, recounting that they had left Rakhine State for Bangladesh to pick up other refugees and sailed to Malaysia, but were not welcomed by locals.

Death and despair: Rohingya describe high-seas terror

NEWAGE

Agence France-Presse.
Lhokseumawe, Indonesia
Jun 28,2020

In this photo taken on June 26, 2020, A Rohingya from Myanmar gets her identification photograph taken by Indonesian police at the immigration detention centre in Lhokseumawe, in Indonesia's North Aceh Regency. - AFP photo 

 

A group of Rohingya say they were beaten by traffickers and drank their own urine to stay alive on a perilous four-month journey at sea until their dramatic rescue near the Indonesian coast.

The bedraggled survivors -- about 100 in all, mostly women and children -- described a high-seas horror story that saw them reduced to throwing the dead overboard as their rickety craft drifted thousands of kilometres towards Malaysia.

'Best of humanity': Indonesian fishermen rescue stranded Rohingya

Aljazeera
26th June 2020
Aceh residents bring stranded Rohingya ashore themselves in defiance of authorities as rights groups urge ASEAN action.

Nearly 100 Rohingya people who were stranded off the coast of Indonesia were pulled to shore on Thursday by local people furious at local authorities' refusal to give them shelter because of fears about the coronavirus.

Some 94 people from the persecuted Myanmar minority - including 30 children - were plucked from their boat by fishermen this week before being intercepted by maritime officials from Sumatra island who pulled them closer to shore.

'Totally shameful': Outrage as Asean nations abandon Rohingya boat people

THESTRAITSTIMES

Jun 26, 2020

Rohingya Muslims on the water off Lhoksukon, Indonesia, on June 24, 2020.PHOTO: EPA-EFE 

 

JAKARTA (THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The new Rohingya refugee crisis that is brewing off the northern coast of Indonesia might cast a long shadow over the upcoming Asean Summit, with critics describing Asean countries' handling of the stranded refugees as "totally shameful" in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Leaders of Asean member states are due to meet virtually in the landmark summit on Friday (June 26), where they are expected to discuss various regional issues including the fate of Rohingya refugees stranded at sea who face widespread rejection from countries on account of coronavirus concerns.

Suspected Rohingya refugee boat floating off Indonesia

bdnews24.com

Reuters
25 Jun 2020

 The Rohingya refugees rescued by fishermen are seen on a boat behind a patrol boat near the coast of Seunuddon beach in North Aceh, Indonesia, June 24, 2020. Antara Foto/Rahmad/via REUTERS 

A boat carrying almost 100 suspected Rohingya refugees was floating several miles off the coast of Indonesia’s Aceh province on Wednesday after being rescued by fishermen, authorities said.

Police said the boat, found by fishermen on Sunday, was carrying around 94 foreign nationals, including 79 women and children.

Indonesian fishermen rescue dozens of Rohingya refugees in Aceh waters

TheJakartaPost
News Desk
The Jakarta Post
Wed, June 24, 2020

An International Organization for Migration (IOM) official (front right) listens to complaints from Rohingya refugees in a temporary shelter in Cot Gapu in Bireuen regency, Aceh, on April 21, 2018. (Antara/Rahmad)

Three Indonesian fishermen rescued 94 foreign nationals who are believed to be Rohingya refugees in the waters of North Aceh regency on Wednesday morning.

The fishermen – Faisal, 40, Abdul Azis, 40, and Raja, 30 – rescued the foreign nationals from a sinking cargo ship using their fishing boat, the KM 2017.811.

They attempted to transport the group to Kuala Tanah Jambo Aye in Seunuddon district, North Aceh, but their engine was broken, leaving them stranded 4 miles from the coast of Seunuddon.

Dozens of Rohingyas believed to have died in voyage to Malaysia

NEWAGE
Agence France-Presse . Kuala Lumpur |
Jun 24,2020

A vessel carries a group of Rohingya people some eight kilometres offshore in the Malacca strait between Indonesia and neighbouring Malaysia. The Indonesian Navy releases the picture on Wednesday. — AFP photo

Dozens of Rohingya are believed to have died during a four-month boat journey to Malaysia, a coastguard official said Wednesday.

There had been more than 300 people on board the boat which was intercepted by authorities earlier this month, said Zubil Mat Som, director-general of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.

The 269 survivors were taken to Langkawi island.

Rohingya say dozens perished in months-long voyage to Malaysia

Aljazeera

24 Jun 2020

 

Survivors from boat crammed with 300 refugees say bodies were thrown in the sea during the tortuous four-month voyage.

Rohingya refugees intercepted by the MMEA off Langkawi island being handed over to immigration authorities [File: Reuters]

Survivors from a boat crammed with more than 300 Rohingya refugees have recounted to Malaysian authorities how dozens had perished during a tortuous four-month voyage and their bodies thrown in the sea.

The head of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) described the ordeal suffered by Rohingya whose damaged boat had made land on the Malaysian island of Langkawi on June 8, with 269 people on board.

Malaysia: Threat to force 269 Rohingya boat people back to sea is a 'new low'

Amnesty International UK 
Press releases
19 Jun 2020

Security sources told journalists that Malaysian authorities were planning to send back the 269 Rohingya people who had landed at Langkawi (library picture) © Andrew Stanbridge / Amnesty International

Vessel landed at Langkawi island on 8 June, with woman’s dead body and many survivors barely able to walk

Coastguard says it has pushed other boats back out to sea

‘This is an unprecedented and dangerous situation. It will not be accepted by the international community’ - Anna Shea

Responding to reports that the Malaysian authorities are planning to force 269 Rohingya people back into exile on dangerous open waters after they landed on the island of Langkawi earlier this month, Anna Shea, Amnesty International’s Researcher on Refugee and Migrant Rights, said: