Rohingya boat with dozens of men lands on Indonesia’s western coast after a month at sea

26 December 2022
Rohingya boat with dozens of men lands on Indonesia’s western coast after a month at sea

Rohingya refugees assemble in a field near Indonesia's westernmost coast after having spent almost a month at sea. Early on Sunday a wooden boat carrying nearly 60 Rohingya refugees landed in the Indonesian province of Aceh, police said, adding that the vessel had a broken engine and was blown to the shore by the wind. Thousands of mostly Muslim Rohingya refugees, heavily persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, risk their lives each year on long, expensive sea journeys in an attempt to reach Malaysia or Indonesia. "Based on their testimony, they had been drifting at sea for a month" says Sulaimi, the spokesperson for the Aceh Besar administration.