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RI rescues another 198 boatpeople in Aceh
The Foreign Ministry will send a team to investigate the arrival of another 198 boatpeople in Aceh province on Tuesday, an official said, the latest in a series of refugees to a number of Southeast Asian countries
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T
he Foreign Ministry will send a team to investigate the arrival of another 198 boatpeople in Aceh province on Tuesday, an official said, the latest in a series of refugees to a number of Southeast Asian countries.
Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Tuesday there was no clear information yet where the refugees came from, amid media reports that said they were Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.
Reuters reported Tuesday that Indonesian authorities found the 198 boatpeople floating in a wooden boat off the coast of Aceh after 21 days at sea, with some of them in critical condition.
The all-male group, which had gone without food for a week and which included a 13-year-old, was spotted by local fishermen, vice head of East Aceh district Nasrudin Abubakar said as quoted by Reuters.
AP reported that they had drifted for three weeks after authorities in Thailand forced them out to sea in a boat without an engine.
“The Foreign Ministry team will arrive tomorrow in Idi Rayeuk [regency] and will hold interviews with them to clarify their status,” Faizasyah said. “The procedure will be similar to the ones we had with the other 193 refugees in Sabang [also in Aceh].”
The government has decided to deport the 193 Rohingya and Bangaladeshi refugees who arrived in Aceh on Jan. 7 after being rescued by local fishermen. They are being sheltered at a naval base in Sabang on Weh Island, and the Foreign Ministry team has met with them twice for interviews.
The decision to deport them was based on the results from the first interview, which found they were economic rather than political refugees.
When asked whether the deportation had been finalized amid concerns for their safety, Faizasyah said, “It has become our policy option. Our team, together with the IOM [International Organization for Migration], will complete their verification tomorrow, and we expect it to result in a recommendation by the end of this week.”
He added the deportation procedure would be discussed with the IOM, which had been invited by the Foreign Ministry to help deal with the case.
The Rohingya people were found without any identity documents and the Myanmar government has denied they are its citizens.
Many Rohingya, mostly Muslims living on the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar, have fled to Thailand and Malaysia to escape persecution by Myanmar’s regime.
