According to reports from local authorities, dozens of Rohingya refugees, all of whom are male, have arrived on a beach in western Indonesia on a wooden boat with a malfunctioning engine.
After being at sea for a month, they are said to have lost their appetite and to be in poor health. At least three males were brought to the hospital after the incident.
It is unclear whether or not they are part of a group of at least 150 Rohingya people who have been adrift at sea for the past few weeks. The Rohingya are an ethnic minority that faces discrimination and violence in their country of origin, Myanmar (Burma).
According to local police spokeswoman Winardy, who spoke with the AFP news agency, the wooden boat that had 57 men on board arrived in Aceh province early on Sunday morning.
According to the statement made by the spokesperson, “the boat’s motor had broken down, and it was carried by the wind to a shore at Ladong Village in the Aceh Besar [region].” They reported that they had been adrift at sea for a whole month.
According to a local immigration official who spoke with AFP, the migrants would be housed at a government facility for the time being.
According to some other accounts in the media, 58 guys made it to Aceh.
It was not immediately clear where the migrants had set sail from; however, a significant number of them reside in refugee camps in Bangladesh, which is almost 1,900 kilometres away.
A small fishing boat carrying at least 150 Rohingya refugees had been drifting without electricity for two weeks after leaving Bangladesh when the United Nations issued an appeal to the countries that surround the Andaman Sea in South East Asia to assist the boat.
At the time, those on the boat who could be reached through satellite phones reported that a lot of the other passengers, including children, had already passed away. They said that there was no longer any food or water available.
On Sunday, the United Nations voiced its concern that the fishing boat may have gone down.
In 2017, a large number of Rohingya Muslims were forced to flee to Bangladesh in order to escape a genocide campaign that was being carried out by the military of Myanmar.
After the monsoon season has ended in the region, people have been attempting, over the past few months, to flee the overcrowded refugee camps that are located in the southern part of Bangladesh by embarking on dangerous sea excursions at this time of year.
Their numbers have increased as a direct result of the deteriorating conditions in the camps, and more Rohingya who are still in Myanmar are also making attempts to flee as a direct result of the military coup that took place there a year ago.
There is evidence that at least five boats have sailed away within the past two months.