Wooden Boat With Dozens of Rohingya Refugees Aboard Capsizes Off Indonesia, Many Passengers Missing

Rescuers and fishermen come to the rescue
UNHCR “State of Emergency”

A wooden boat carrying dozens of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar capsized off the coast of Indonesia, prompting rescue operations by local fishermen and Indonesian authorities.

According to Antara News and other sources, on the 20th (local time), around 8 a.m., about 50 Rohingya refugees were spotted standing on the hull of the capsized boat off the coast of Meulaboh in West Aceh Regency, the province of Aceh Province, Indonesia, signaling for rescue.

Local fishermen and Indonesian rescue authorities who spotted them embarked on a rescue operation. However, the rescue operation faced difficulties due to bad weather, and only six people were rescued. Strong currents swept away the rest of the refugees who are now missing, but the exact damage has not been reported.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed deep concern about the accident in a statement, saying, “Dozens of Rohingya refugees are in desperate need of rescue, but it is an emergency situation where the exact number of missing persons cannot be confirmed.”

The Rohingya are a minority Muslim ethnic group who have long been oppressed in Myanmar, where Buddhists are the majority. Particularly, they fled en masse to refugee camps in Bangladesh, driven away by the extensive crackdown by the Myanmar government in 2016.

Moreover, life in the refugee camps is also very poor, so they take to the sea to cross to Malaysia, where Islam is the state religion, or Indonesia, where Muslims are the overwhelming majority, from October to April, during which the sea is relatively calm.

However, the wooden boats they ride are very old, and many of them die or are missing at sea.

According to the UNHCR, about 4,500 Rohingya refugees took to the sea from Bangladesh or Myanmar last year, and among them, 569 people died or went missing.