JAKARTA (Reuters) – More than 200 Rohingya arrived ashore over the weekend in Indonesia's Aceh province, an official said on Monday, amid growing numbers of arrivals by sea from the stateless population in the Southeast Asian country.
The Muslim Rohingya, who are originally from Myanmar and make up the world's largest stateless population, often flee poor conditions in refugee camps on rickety boats to Thailand or Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia between October and April, when the seas are calmer.
Muftah Tjot Adik, head of the Aceh fishing community, said that more than 200 Rohingya arrived on Sunday evening in the West Puryulak district in East Aceh on the island of Sumatra, on the western side of Indonesia.
Faisal Rahman, an official with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said that the agency is coordinating with local authorities, and its team is heading to West Purulak on Monday.
Between October and November last year, more than 500 Rohingya arrived in Indonesia by boat.
Nearly one million Rohingya live in camps in Bangladesh in what UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi described as “the largest humanitarian refugee camp in the world.”
In Buddhist-majority Myanmar, they are viewed as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship and subjected to abuse.
UNHCR data showed that more than 2,000 Rohingya arrived in Indonesia in 2023, more than the total arrivals in the previous four years.
