REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ACEH – The wave of arrivals of Rohingya refugees continues to occur in Aceh. On Sunday (12/10/2023), around 315 Rohingya refugees landed again in Aceh, namely in the Blang Raya coastal area, Pidie Regency, and the Blang Ulam beach, Aceh Besar Regency.
"Yes, there are two Rohingya boats, one in the Blang Raya area, the other in the Blang Ulam coastal area of Aceh Besar," said the chief of fisherman in Aceh, Miftach Tjut Adek, in Banda Aceh, Sunday. Miftach said that the Rohingya immigrants in Pidie landed at around 03.30 am and in Aceh Besar at around 05.30 am local time.
The arrival of Rohingya refugees in Pidie received rejection from local residents. However, then they kept coming back until they finally managed to land.
Meanwhile, Muara Tiga Police Chief, Pidie Regency, Ipda Efendi, recorded that the total number of Rohingya who landed there was around 180 people. "The number of women is more dominant, namely 74 people, while there are 53 men, 26 boys and 27 girls," said Efendi.
In Aceh Besar, Krueng Raya Police Chief, Rolly Yuiza Away , said that around 135 Rohingya immigrants landed there, and there were no details of the number of refugees.
The position of the refugees, said Rolly, was quite a distance of about one kilometer from the ship they were traveling on, and they descended on foot to the place where they were currently staying. "The members had just found the ship, and the location was about one kilometer away. They were walking," said Rolly.
Yesterday's arrival of Rohingya refugees is the 9th wave to Aceh since November 2023. The points where the immigrants visited were in Pidie Regency, there were four waves, Bireuen and East Aceh had one wave each, Sabang City had two waves and the last was in Aceh Besar one wave.
The wave of Rohingya refugee arrivals began to intensify in Aceh since November 2022. At that time, at least 656 Rohingya refugees landed in Aceh. The number of landings during November 2022-January 2023 alone has exceeded the number of arrivals throughout 2020 (395 people) and 2021 (186 people). Recently, this wave has occurred again since November 2023. Currently, the number of Rohingya refugees in Indonesia is almost approaching 2,000 people.
The journey of these refugees often ends in death. Last year, a ship carrying 180 Rohingya Muslims on board sank, making 2022 one of the worst years. The predominantly Muslim ethnic group fled their home country after the military carried out a deadly brutal crackdown in 2017. In Buddhist-majority Myanmar, most Rohingya are denied citizenship and are seen as illegal immigrants from South Asia.
Most Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have fled from Rakhine in Myanmar since 2017. For about five years they have been in refugee camps in Cox's Bazar with bamboo tents and tarpaulins, often hit by floods and fires.
There is no adequate sanitation system, no way to earn income, and no education. Around 1.5 million to 2 million refugees filled Cox's Bazar. Although officially, the number of refugees in Cox's Bazar is recorded at 890 thousand people. Even with official figures, Cox's Bazar is currently the largest refugee cluster in the world.
Since 2020, around 20 thousand have been moved to an empty island called Bhasan Char. Although the refugees are provided with housing, other facilities are minimal. As a result, there is a food shortage and a scarcity of clean water. There are also no jobs or schools at that location. Refugees often feel imprisoned.
The conditions in the refugee camps were so crowded and miserable that it also triggered conflict among the refugees. The slightest misunderstanding can lead to violence between groups. This increasingly encourages the Rohingya ethnic group to brave the sea in the hope of a better place.
The escape
Meanwhile, Lhokseumawe Police, Aceh, thwarted an attempt to escape six Rohingya refugees from the temporary shelter at the former Lhokseumawe Immigration Office, in Blang Mangat District.
Lhokseumawe Police Chief Adjunct Police Commissioner Henki Ismanto in Lhokseumawe, Friday, said that the action of Rohingya refugees fleeing was successfully thwarted early Friday morning at around 01.00 am.
Henki explained that in the last two weeks 30 Rohingya refugees had escaped from the temporary shelter location in Blang Mangat, Lhokseumawe. On that basis, continued Henki, the police formed a task force team to carry out investigative steps for five days.
"As a result, in the early hours of Friday (8/12) the team we formed succeeded in thwarting six Rohingya refugees who were trying to escape and had left the shelter," he said. Apart from arresting the six Rohingya refugees, the Lhokseumawe Police Task Force Team also arrested three suspects with the initials RM (50), HU (41) and DA (25), residents of Lhokseumawe City.
To the police, the three suspects admitted that they were contacted by telephone by someone with the initials KH to pick up the foreigner. Now, the figure of KH has been declared a fugitive or wanted person.
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