UN Condemns Indonesia’s Attacks Against Rohingya Refugees

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

JAKARTA (Worthy News) – The United Nations agency UNHCR has appealed for the protection of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in Indonesia after a large crowd of students stormed a convention center housing hundreds of Rohingya in the city of Banda Aceh.

Witnesses said the students, many wearing green jackets, ran this week into the building’s large basement space, where crowds of Rohingya men, women, and children were seated on the floor crying in fear.

The Rohingya were then led out, some carrying their belongings in plastic sacks, and taken to trucks as the protesters looked on, footage seen by Worthy News showed.

The UNHCR said it was “deeply disturbed to see a mob attack on a site sheltering vulnerable refugee families, [the] majority being children and women” and called for better protection.

“The mob broke a police cordon and forcibly put 137 refugees on two trucks, and moved them to another location in Banda Aceh,” the capital of Indonesia’s province of Aceh on the island of Sumatra.

“The incident has left refugees shocked and traumatized,” it added. It came amid mounting tensions in Aceh over the continuous arrival of Rohingya, though locals and the refugees are both Muslims, Worthy News learned.

Rohingya refugees have experienced increasing hostility and rejection in Indonesia as locals grow frustrated at boats arriving with the ethnic minority, a church worker told Worthy News.

FACING PERSECUTION

Rohingya face persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, also known as Burma. Indonesian President Joko Widodo linked the recent surge in arrivals to human trafficking and pledged to work with international organizations to offer temporary shelter.

More than 1,500 Rohingya have landed in Indonesia since November, according to UNHCR estimates.

Authorities also link the spike between November and April on calmer seas with Rohingya taking boats to neighbouring
Thailand and Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia.

Initially, Rohingya were welcomed in Aceh, but students said at the recent rally that
“They came here uninvited; they feel like it is their country.”

Many locals are themselves struggling with poverty in Aceh, World Bank and other researchers say, and villagers note their province is unable to care for the refugee influx.

Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951
United Nations Convention on Refugees but has in the past taken in refugees if they arrive.

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