Influx of Rohingya refugee arrival continues despite risks, expenses

Around a million mostly Muslim Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh, and from there thousands risk their lives each year on long and expensive sea journeys to reach Malaysia or Indonesia. However, many locals in host countries have voiced serious concern.

Two boats carrying nearly 400 Rohingya Muslims, including emaciated women and children, arrived at Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh on Sunday morning after being adrift for weeks, adding to a recent surge of Myanmar’s Muslim minority arriving in the country.

Prior to Sunday’s arrivals, the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) said that 1,200 Rohingya people, a persecuted minority from Myanmar, had landed ashore in Indonesia since November.

Passengers in most boats need to survive on scarce food and water, enduring the long atrocious journeys at sea for up to 45 days while paying high fees as much as $360 to escape Bangladesh.

For years, Rohingya have left Buddhist-majority Myanmar where they are generally regarded as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship and subjected to abuse. About 740,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to camps in Bangladesh since August 2017, following a brutal counterinsurgency campaign.

Most of the refugees leaving by sea attempt to reach Muslim-majority Malaysia in search of work.

Since November, more than 1,500 Rohingya refugees have arrived by boat in Indonesia’s Aceh province. Some were denied landing by the residents in Aceh Utara district and Sabang island, sparking concerns from human rights organizations.

Indonesia, where Muslims comprise nearly 90% of the country’s 277 million people, is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees but has a history of taking in refugees when they arrive on the country’s shores.

Local authorities and residents have been rejecting the Rohingya, threatening to push them back to sea. The local government in Pidie said earlier it would not take responsibility for providing the refugees with tents, or other basic needs. They said they would not “bear any expenses” and that no shelters were available, according to VOA.

President Joko Widodo said Friday that temporary relief would be provided for refugees “with a priority on the interests of the local community”.

He accused a human trafficking network of being behind the rising number of Rohingya refugees reaching his country by boat, vowing to take strict action against the perpetrators.