LHOKSEUMAWE: Human traffickers left dozens of Rohingya refugees, including children, stranded on a shoreline in westernmost Indonesia on Thursday, while six dead bodies were found nearby, local officials said.

Members of the persecuted minority risk their lives each year on long and dangerous sea journeys, often crowding into rickety boats in the hopes of reaching Malaysia or Indonesia.

The refugees were abandoned before dawn on Thursday around 100 metres off a beach in Aceh Province, Saiful Anwar, a village official in East Aceh, said. The group included 46 women, 37 men and seven children, he said, while locals found two bodies on the shore and four floating in the sea.

Miftach Tjut Adek, chief of the community, said that the 96 arrivals, including seven children, were still at the local beach in the eastern part of Aceh on Sumatra island. “There is no solution yet, they are still at the beach,” said Miftach.

Refugees abandoned by human traffickers around 100 metres off a beach in Aceh province

“According to information from residents, these people were stranded at around 4am. It seems like there was a boat that brought them,” Saiful said. Eight sick refugees were taken for medical treatment, he said.

East Aceh acting district head Amrullah M. Ridha told reporters the refugees would be kept in tents on the beach until authorities sheltered them. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said it knew about the arrivals but could offer no further information. Acting Aceh Governor Safrizal, told reporters “human trafficking mafia activity” was to blame for the latest arrivals.

It is the third group of arrivals in western Indonesia this month, with more than 150 refugees landing in Aceh and another 140 arriving in North Sumatra province.

Every year, thousands of Rohingya attempt the perilous 4,000-kilometre journey from Bangladesh to Malaysia, fuelling a multi-million dollar human-smuggling operation that often involves stopovers in Indonesia.

Indonesia is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention and says it cannot be compelled to take in the refugees, calling instead on neighbouring countries to share the burden.

Many Acehnese, who themselves have memories of decades of bloody conflict, are sympathetic to the plight of their fellow Muslims, but others say their patience has been tested by the annual arrivals.

About 300 Rohingya came ashore last week in Indonesia’s Aceh and North Sumatra provinces. The United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR has called on Indonesia’s government to ensure their safety. UNHCR was providing aid to the Rohingya together with local authorities, a spokesperson in Indonesia said.

Between October and April, when the seas are calmer, many Rohingya Muslims leave Myanmar on rickety boats for Thailand, Muslim-majority Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh.

The Rohingya leave Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are regarded as foreign interlopers from South Asia and are denied citizenship and subjected to abuse. Over 2,000 Rohingya arrived in Indonesia last year, UNHCR data showed, more than the combined total of arrivals in the previous four years. Some of them faced rejection in Indonesia as locals grew frustrated by the deluge of arrivals.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2024