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At least 26 Rohingya Muslims have died in harsh conditions on the high seas in a month while they embarked on a dangerous voyage that brought dozens of others to safety in Indonesia, a UN agency said.
Exhausted women and children were among the 185 people who disembarked from a wooden boat in a coastal village in Aceh province’s Pitteh district on Monday, authorities said.
A harrowing video widely circulated on social media showed Rohingya exhausted and emaciated, with many crying for help.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said survivors told the agency that 26 people had died during the long journey.
One of the refugees, who identified himself as Rohid, told The Associated Press that they had left the camp in Bangladesh in late November, drifting on the high seas.
At least “20 of us died on board from high waves and sickness, and their bodies were thrown into the sea,” he said.
UNHCR has also received unconfirmed reports that another boat carrying about 180 people remains missing. All passengers are presumed dead.
Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, said in a statement: “If local governments do not respond immediately, tactfully and in a coordinated way to help Rohingya refugees still on dangerous boats, lives could be at stake. die.”
“This is unacceptable.”
Over the decades, more than 1 million Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh, with some 740,000 of them crossing the border since August 2017, when the Myanmar military launched a crackdown.
An international tribunal is reviewing genocide charges against Burmese security forces accused of mass rapes, killings and burning thousands of homes.
“This year may be the deadliest year in recent memory for the Rohingya to make the dangerous journey at sea. They continue to risk it all because of the dire conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh, where security and other living conditions have deteriorated , while the situation in Myanmar is deteriorating, which has been under military rule since the coup nearly two years ago,” said the Amnesty director.
The UN refugee agency praised authorities and local Indonesian communities for bringing ashore more than 200 desperate Rohingya, many of whom needed urgent medical attention.
Indonesian fishermen and local authorities rescued and disembarked two groups of people, 58 on Sunday and 174 on Monday, said Ann Maymann, UNHCR’s representative in Indonesia.
“We welcome this humanitarian act by the local community and authorities in Indonesia,” Ms Maiman said.
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