Indonesia to allow drifting boat filled with Rohingya refugees to land

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities decided Wednesday to allow a boat carrying 120 Rohingya Muslims to land after drifting for days off the country’s northernmost province of Aceh.

The decision was made because of the severe conditions experienced by the passengers, who are overwhelmingly women and children, said Armed Wijaya, who heads a refugee task force at the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Law and Security.

“The Indonesian government has decided, in the name of humanity, to accommodate the Rohingya refugees currently adrift at sea near Bireuen district,” Wijaya said in a statement.

Local authorities had earlier said they would push the boat back to international waters despite calls from the United Nations refugee agency and human rights groups that it be allowed to land.

The vessel is reportedly leaking and has a damaged engine, and is floating in the open sea in harsh weather and may be at risk of capsizing, the refugee agency said Tuesday.

The boat was first sighted by local fishermen on Sunday about 60 miles off the coast of Bireuen, said Badruddin Yunus, the leader of the local tribal fishing community. He said fishermen were unable to tow the broken-down wooden boat but provided food, water and clothes to the passengers, including 60 women, 51 children and nine men.

“Their condition looks weak but fine,” said Yunus, adding that the Rohingya said they wanted to go to Malaysia and had been at sea for 28 days before their boat’s engine broke down.

Local officials, supported by police and the navy, provided food, medicine, a new engine and a technician to help repair the boat.

They said early they would push it back to international waters once it is fixed, said Bireuen district chief Muzakkar Gani, who also cited concerns that some of the people might have covid-19. The plan to push the boat back out to sea drew an outcry from human rights groups.

“The Rohingya ethnic group is a vulnerable, stateless group of people that should be given protection,” the Civil Society Coalition, a coalition of nine Indonesian rights groups, said in a statement. “As a country that upholds human rights and a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council, Indonesia should set an example for other countries.”