About 250 Rohingya refugees who arrived in a wooden boat off the coast of western Indonesia have been turned away by angry locals and sent back to sea, according to an India Today report.
The refugees, who belong to a persecuted minority group from Myanmar, had been at sea for about three weeks and were in poor condition.
The boat, carrying about 250 people, reached the shore of Aceh province on Thursday, but the villagers told them not to land and gave them supplies, including food, clothing and gasoline. Some refugees swam ashore and collapsed from exhaustion on the beach, but they were forced back to the boat by the locals.
The villagers said they were fed up with the presence of Rohingya refugees, who they accused of being unruly and involved in human trafficking. They said they did not have any proper place to house them and that some of them had run away from temporary shelters in the past.
The boat then sailed to another part of the coast of North Aceh, where it landed on a beach. But again, the locals sent them back to the boat and out to sea, late Thursday. They also repaired the boat after some refugees tried to sink it, hoping to stay on land.
By Friday, the boat was no longer visible from the coast, and its whereabouts were unknown. A Rohingya rights activist said she was trying to find out where the boat went, but no one seemed to know.
The activist, Chris Lewa, who is the director of the Arakan Project, said the villagers’ rejection seemed to be related to a lack of local government resources to accommodate the refugees and a feeling that they were being taken advantage of by smugglers.
She said Rohingya smugglers used Indonesia as a transit to Malaysia, where many refugees wanted to reunite with their families or seek protection.
Nearly 600 Rohingya refugees have reached western Indonesia this week. The UN refugee agency said many of them were in need of medical attention and humanitarian aid.
Thousands of Rohingya refugees risk their lives each year on long and expensive sea journeys, often in flimsy boats, to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia. They are fleeing from persecution and violence in Myanmar, where they are denied citizenship and basic rights.
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