Myanmar’s Rohingyas in Indonesia see their future hanging in limbo
More than 1,000 Rohingya people undertook a weeks-long journey of more than 1,800 kilometers on packed, rickety boats and reached the Aceh province in Indonesia.
They say that they have fled escalating brutality in the camps in and around Cox’s Bazar, which hold more than one million people and where gangs regularly abduct and torture residents for ransom.
Indonesia is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention and says it is not compelled to take in refugees from Myanmar, but neighboring countries have shut their doors, meaning they have almost no other options.
More than half a dozen boats have arrived in Aceh since Nov. 14, and monitors say more are on their way, despite some locals turning arriving boats back to sea and stepping up patrols on the coast.
(Source: AFP)
