Boats carrying Rohingya reach Indonesia

About 146 Rohingya, including children, came ashore in Indonesia's North Sumatra province on Thursday, an official said, the second wave of arrivals to the Southeast Asian country within a week.

A boat carrying 64 men, 62 women and 20 children landed early on Thursday morning, in the Deli Serdang area of North Sumatra, Raphael Sandhy Cahya Priambodo, the head of regional police, told Reuters.

"The Rohingya were swimming from the boat to reach the shore," Raphael said, adding they were temporarily placed in a local administration office.

"All of them survived and are now in a good condition."

An Indonesian military officer and locals deliver essentials to Rohingya refugees after they got stranded due to a boat engine failure in the waters of South Aceh, Aceh province, Indonesia, October 20, 2024Reuters

Their arrival came after another boat also carrying about 150 Rohingya, a minority group who have faced persecution in Myanmar, had been stranded in Indonesia's Aceh province for a week after local residents refused to let it come ashore.

The boat, which arrived in Indonesian waters on Oct. 17, was finally allowed to land on Thursday, the head of fishing community in South Aceh Muhammad Jabal told Reuters, after an appeal from the UN refugee agency to the Indonesian government.

From October to April, when the seas are calmer, many Rohingya Muslims leave Myanmar on rickety boats for Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh.

More than 2,300 Rohingya arrived in Indonesia last year, UN data showed, more than the combined total of arrivals in the previous four years.

Rohingya have faced increasing rejection in Indonesia as locals grow frustrated at the number of arrivals.