Indonesia: Local villages reluctant to receive influx of Rohingya migrants

For weeks, boats full of Rohingya migrants fleeing camps in Bangladesh have been landing in Indonesia’s Aceh province, stretching local resources and patience.

Authorities are under pressure to turn back more boats, while many of Aceh’s residents tried to ward off the boats after giving them little food and water.

The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority who were mainly based in Myanmar’s Rakhine province before hundreds of thousands fled military persecution in 2017 to neighboring Bangladesh.

Most are accommodated in the sprawling refugee camps at Cox’s Bazaar on Bangladesh’s southeastern coast.