Indonesia on Wednesday said it will let dozens of Rohingya refugees come ashore after protests from local residents and the international community over its plan to push them into Malaysian waters.
At least 100 people, mostly women and children, aboard a stricken wooden vessel off Aceh province were denied refuge in Indonesia, where authorities said on Tuesday they planned to push them into Malaysian waters after fixing their boat.
After a day-long meeting on Wednesday between officials in the coastal town of Bireuen, Jakarta backtracked and said the refugees’ boat would be towed to shore on humanitarian grounds.
“The decision was taken after considering the emergency condition of the refugees on that boat,” said Armed Wijaya, head of the national taskforce on refugees.
The Rohingya boat was about 50 miles (80km) from Bireuen and would be pulled ashore, he said without elaborating on the timing.
“As it is now in the middle of the pandemic, all refugees will undergo medical screening,” he said, adding that the taskforce would coordinate with related stakeholders to provide shelter and logistics for the refugees.
Indonesian authorities first spotted the wooden boat two days ago, stranded about 80 miles off the Indonesian coast, according to a local navy commander. Local fishermen had alerted them on 25 December, one of them said.
On Tuesday, Amnesty International and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees called on the government to let the stranded group of Rohingya refugees land.
The earlier plan by authorities in Aceh to send the refugees to Malaysia also angered local people in Bireuen, where a group of fishermen on Wednesday organised a protest demanding authorities allow the Rohingya to disembark.
“We saw videos of their condition on social media. They need water and food. They must be treated with kindness as human beings,” Bireuen resident Wahyudi told AFP.
“We Acehnese used to have the same experience with the Rohingya. We were in a prolonged conflict. We fled crossing the sea and were helped by people from various countries such as Malaysia, Australia.”
