A group of Rohingya refugees arrived in Indonesia after spending a month adrift at sea. There are 58 men who arrived in the province of Aceh, on the beaches of Indapatra. According to the first people to arrive on the scene, they appeared very weak from “starvation and dehydration.”
From the village of Ladong, which is close to where these Myanmar refugees arrived, they helped them onto the boats and waited for instructions from the immigration officers of Indonesia. Due to their poor condition, at least three men had to be rushed to a clinic, while others underwent various medical treatments.
According to the UN: “Reports indicate that those who remained on board spent more than a month in extremely poor conditions, with insufficient water and food and without efforts by the countries of the region to save human lives.” Those who came to Indonesia it is estimated that they are part of a group of 190 refugees of whom “many would be women and children”. On the other hand, at least 20 of the people on board died during the trip.
The country in Southeast Asia He did not sign the convention on refugees made in 1951 by the UN, but in 2016 the president made a regulation with the aim of being able to offer a legal framework that adheres to the request of the United Nations. In this way, organizations can treat immigrants who arrive on rafts on the coasts of Indonesia.
Who are the Rohingyas?
The Rohingyas are an Islamic ethnic minority who are persecuted by the Buddhist government of Myanmar and having experienced various hardships within their country’s borders, many decide to escape and attempt to cross the borders of neighboring nations such as Malaysia, Indonesia and, especially, Bangladesh, where the censuses in 2018 indicated that more than one million three hundred thousand people of that ethnic group lived.
This reality has become a humanitarian crisis that forces many people to get on rafts with the aim of reaching the mainland in other countries, in order to build a life away from repression within the borders of their nation.