The Indonesian Navy pushed back a vessel carrying Rohingya refugees after it was detected in Indonesian waters on Wednesday.
The refugee boat was intercepted by a naval vessel roughly 63 nautical miles off the coast of Aceh, a semi-autonomous Indonesian province in the northwestern tip of Sumatra island, according to the Indonesian Navy’s account of the incident. Following the interception, the naval vessel “shadowed” the boat until it left Indonesian territorial waters, to ensure that it “would not return.” The navy alleged the boat was carrying human trafficking victims.
This news comes as the latest installment in a series related to Indonesia and the Rohingya. Earlier on Wednesday, a large mob of Indonesian students stormed a local community center in Banda Aceh, the Acehnese capital, where a group of Rohingya refugees were taking shelter. The students broke a police cordon and forced all 137 refugees reported to be staying at the community center—the majority being women and children—onto two trucks to move them to a different location in the capital, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported.
The Rohingya are a majority-Muslim ethnic group from Myanmar. However, they are not considered one of the country’s 135 official ethnic groups and have been denied citizenship in the Southeast Asian country since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless.
To escape ongoing violence and persecution, many Rohingya have been forced to flee Myanmar to neighboring countries such as Bangladesh and Malaysia by land or sea. Over 1,500 Rohingya refugees are estimated to have landed in Indonesia via boat since November of this year, according to UNHCR data.
Despite not being a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, which enjoins contracting states not to expel or return (refouler) a refugee to a country or territory where he or she could face threats to life or liberty or be subjected to persecution, Indonesia has been known to provide a haven to Rohingya since the start of a genocide against the group in 2017. However, following this past week’s violence, Indonesian authorities have urged Myanmar to cease its violence against the Rohingya and appealed to the international community for aid in ramping up maritime patrols.
The sailing season, during which the Rohingya flee to neighboring countries, typically takes place between November and April, when the seas are calmer. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are currently displaced in refugee camps in Bangladesh or facing detainment and violent persecution in Myanmar.
