JAKARTA/NEW DELHI: Activists called on the Indonesian government on Saturday to rescue hundreds of Rohingya refugees who have been adrift for weeks on boats in the Indian Ocean, amid reports of passengers dying aboard broken boats.
Two boats carrying refugees, including women and children, entered Indonesian waters near the northernmost province of Aceh on Friday night, according to Amnesty International, which urged the government to allow them to disembark safely.
“Reports said that both ships were carrying children. No rescue efforts have been made as of Saturday at noon. A refugee from one of the boats reportedly starved to death,” the group said in a statement.
“Many people, in Indonesia, Australia and around the world, are ready to celebrate Christmas. The spirit of humanity displayed during Christmas must prevail at a time like this… We urge the Indonesian government to rescue the ships and allow them to land safely.”
The boats are believed to be two of five that left the coast of Cox’s Bazar, the largest Rohingya refugee settlement in Bangladesh, in late November, attempting to cross the Andaman Sea to another host country.
QUICKDONE
Two boats carrying refugees, including women and children, entered Indonesian waters near the northernmost province of Aceh on Friday night, according to Amnesty International, which urged the government to allow them to disembark safely.
In early December, 154 refugees on one of the ships were rescued by a Vietnamese company offshore and handed over to the Myanmar navy, while 104 people aboard another ship were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy on December 18. .
The UN refugee agency cited unconfirmed reports on Saturday that at least 20 people on one of the missing boats were already dead, and urged countries in the region to “help save lives.”
Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, a Rohingya activist in Cox’s Bazar whose sister and niece are on board one of the ships near Indonesian waters, said in a broadcast message sent to reporters that the ship was “towed into Indonesian waters by the Indian Navy.
“We ask the Indonesian government to urgently allow them to disembark,” Khan told Arab News.
“It’s very important for them to get to any land, to land on any land, because they’ve been at sea for almost a month, so it’s a very serious situation right now.”
The ship, it said, had 160 people on board and has been adrift off the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and India since early December, when its engines broke down.
Although calls for help are becoming more desperate, South Asian countries have yet to send official aid or give any indication that they intend to, according to activists.
Wisnu Pramandita, a spokesman for the Indonesian Maritime Safety Agency, told Arab News that the authorities have yet to locate any vessels in the country’s maritime territory.
Reza Maulana of Geutanyoe, an Aceh-based humanitarian organization that works with Rohingya refugees in Indonesia, said technical or political issues should not be used as arguments to avoid humanitarian action.
“It is beyond all technicalities,” he said. “Rescuing refugees in danger is imperative, no matter what.”
Priyali Sur, founder of the Azadi Project, a Chennai-based organization that supports refugees, said she had received a photo of a boy on board one of the boats who had reportedly drowned along with his family.
“All of these countries have left an entire population to fend for itself and pretty much die at sea,” Sur said.
Arab News could not immediately verify the photo or reports that the ship had sunk.
In 2017, more than 730,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh after a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar military that the UN says amounts to genocide.
In squalid and overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar, Rohingya refugees have faced increasingly complex uncertainties that have led them to undertake risky journeys in the hope of a better life.
“I think there should be a global outreach to find out what we can do in terms of resettlement for this community,” Sur said.
“When Ukrainian refugees started arriving, many countries openly accepted them. Why isn’t that the case for the Rohingya?”
