Over 500 long-persecuted Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar wash to shore in Indonesia

Boats carrying about 500 members of Myanmar’s long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim community washed to shore in western Indonesia, with some of the people in need of medical attention

Boats carrying about 500 members of Myanmar’s long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim community washed to shore in western Indonesia, with some of the people in need of medical attention.

A migration official and a human rights advocate said that the men, women and children arrived on two separate boats, one carrying around 430 people and the other 70.

Rohingya Muslims have for decades suffered from state-sanctioned discrimination in Myanmar.

According to reports, attacks on the religious minority by Buddhist mobs in the last three years have sparked one of the biggest exoduses of boat people since the Vietnam War, sending 100,000 people fleeing.