Around 200 Rohingya refugees, which involves several women and children, came in Indonesia’s westernmost province on Tuesday, a local official revealed, the hugest contingent of the persecuted Myanmar minority to come in months. Thousands of the mostly Muslim Rohingya risk their lives each year on long and costly sea journeys, often in flimsy boats, to make an effort to go to Malaysia or Indonesia.
The group of 196 landed on Tuesday morning in a remote part of Aceh province’s Pidie region, local navy commander Andi Susanto revealed in a statement. Some of the fresh arrivals at the spot fled inland, according to Mr Marfian, a spokesperson for the fishing community, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. “Ten… immediately went to the nearby hills.
It seems that they were the middlemen who intentionally brought the refugees to the region,” he conveyed. The local government gave a lower number of seven who fled. The refugees were being assisted by local authorities and residents. “Local people have made available food and drink for them as it is their habit of supporting stranded Rohingyas,” Mr Marfian revealed. Photos shared with AFP presented exhausted-appearing refugees, which includes women holding babies in their arms, desperately waiting on the beachside for help.