Indonesia: Boat carrying Rohingya refugee pushed back to international waters by Navy

The Indonesian navy has pushed back a boat carrying Rohingya refugees as it approached the coast of Aceh amid resentment among some residents about a sudden increase in boat arrivals.

The military said the coastguard first detected the wooden vessel entering Indonesian waters on Wednesday, before the navy ship KRI Bontang-907 located the boat about 63 nautical miles (117km) off Aceh on the northwestern tip of the archipelago and drove it out, “ensuring that the boat did not return to Indonesian waters,” the navy said in a statement posted in its website.

More than 1,500 Rohingya refugees have landed in Indonesia on barely seaworthy wooden boats since November, according to data from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and the sudden jump in arrivals has aroused growing hostility among people in Aceh.

Indonesia has appealed to the international community for help and intensified patrols of its waters, promising to crack down on suspected human traffickers it says are involved in the latest wave of boat arrivals. Indonesia, although not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, was once known for providing a safe haven to the Rohingya even as neighbouring Malaysia and Thailand pushed them away.