The U.N. refugee agency, U.N.H.C.R., recently cataloged six known deadly voyages involving Rohingya between January 2020 and July of this year that it said had resulted in a total of 220 estimated deaths. Three of those journeys ended in Indonesia, two in Bangladesh and one in Malaysia.
The agency said in the report that the prevalence of deaths on such journeys was rising because refugees were spending longer periods in limbo in open water. Their vessels tend to be poorly equipped, inadequately stocked with essential supplies and crewed by smugglers who abuse passengers, the agency said.
Fishermen in Aceh are among the few in Southeast Asia who have welcomed the Rohingya.
A battered trawler with around 100 refugees landed in the province last June, followed by a larger one a few months later carrying nearly 300 people who had been at sea for nearly seven months. Amnesty International expressed frustration that it was local fishermen, not Indonesian officials, who rescued the second boat.
“The government, not private individuals, should have saved these lives,” Usman Hamid, the group’s Indonesia executive director, said at the time.
On Thursday, Mr. Wijaya of the government’s refugee task force said that the passengers from the rescued boat would undergo health screenings and be placed in shelters after the Navy delivered them safely to Aceh.
“As for them going to a third country, we will defer to U.N.H.C.R.,” he added. “We hope it is immediately.”