Dramatic efforts to rescue stranded Rohingya refugees
Rohingya refugees seen on a capsized boat before being rescued in the waters off Indonesia on Thurssday.
As the skipper of an Indonesian search and rescue vessel scoured the sea early on Thursday, a dot appeared on the horizon — dozens of Rohingya refugees drifting on the rusty hull of their overturned ship poking out of the water.
Against the ocean expanse were men, women and children trying to escape Bangladeshi camps filled with poverty, crime and a lack of hope to reach the shores of Indonesia or, eventually, Malaysia for a better life. Under the beating sun, a rescuer had seen one of the men desperately waving a red shirt through his binoculars, hailing the ship in the direction of the group whose boat capsised on Wednesday, with dozens feared to have been swept away.
The group was standing on their makeshift metal buoy because there was not enough room for them all to sit with more than half of it submerged by the sea, footage from the rescue boat showed.
“The first thing I saw was a little girl, around five years old. I looked at her feet and they were badly wrinkly, as if they had been submerged in water for a long time,” said a journalist on board the rescue ship.
“She looked so weak and dehydrated, but her face seemed hopeful again.”
69 Rohingya successfully reached land in Aceh on Thursday afternoon, with most taken to a temporary shelter. Some were immediately taken to hospital. Yet the status of those who accompanied them but were swept away when the boat capsized remains unknown. For those who survived, reaching a new land and risking their life was better than staying where they were.