Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Indonesian authorities to immediately stop all boat pushbacks of Rohingya refugees and investigate all attacks on refugees and put an end to them.
The organization said that the authorities should allow them to disembark at the nearest safe port, provide them with protection and humanitarian assistance, and investigate online incitement to violence against them.
On December 27, 2023, more than 100 students breached police lines and stormed a car park in the city of Banda Aceh, where 137 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, were being sheltered.
The students verbally and physically attacked the refugees, then forced them onto trucks that transported them to the government immigration office, where the students demanded the refugees be deported.
In other places in Aceh province, locals tried to prevent Rohingya boats from reaching the shore, surrounded their tents on beaches and other temporary sites, and demanded their deportation.
Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division at Human Rights Watch, said the Indonesian government must ensure the protection of these people and “not return them to death at sea or attack by thugs.”
He added that “the government must investigate everyone who has initiated an online campaign inciting violence against Rohingya refugees and hold them accountable.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that since November, 11 boats carrying Rohingya refugees have arrived in Indonesia and refugees have been transported to sites mostly in Aceh, with those boats carrying about 1,700 refugees, 70% of whom are women and children.
