By AFP
PNearly 200 Rohingyas, a persecuted Muslim minority in Burma, landed in Indonesia on Monday, according to Indonesian authorities, the fourth such landing since November.
In total, “185 Rohingya migrants landed in Pidie. There are 83 adult men, 70 adult women and 32 children,” local police spokesman Winardy, who often has a single name in Indonesia, said in a statement.
In Bangladesh, the exile of a million Rohingyas in the largest refugee camp in the world
The wooden boat arrived at the end of the day on a beach in the province of Aceh, in the far west of Indonesia.
Every year, thousands of Rohingyas risk their lives, often on shoddy ships, in an attempt to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.
Some of Monday’s very weak and emaciated new arrivals, suffering from dehydration, were put on a drip, according to AFP journalists.
No official details on the survivors’ journey were available at first, but a young passenger said he had left Bangladesh, a country neighboring Burma where many Rohingyas are refugees. “We came from a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh hoping that Indonesia would give us the opportunity to study,” said 14-year-old Umar Faruq.
Several boats carrying Rohingyas have been reported adrift in the Indian Ocean, including a boat carrying 180 Rohingya refugees, with whom their relatives in Bangladesh had lost contact, according to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.
On Sunday, another boat carrying 57 Rohingya refugees arrived in Aceh after a month at sea. And in November, two boats carrying a total of 229 Rohingya landed in Aceh province, according to UNHCR.
