Indonesian rescuers scramble to save Rohingya refugees from capsized boat

An Indonesian search and rescue ship located the capsized wooden boat carrying Rohingya refugees as they stand on the craft's hull for safety on March 21, 2024. (Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency)

• Wooden vessel believed to have been carrying at least 75 Rohingya refugees
• Over 500 Rohingya died at sea in 2023, the highest figure in 9 years

JAKARTA: Indonesian authorities and fishermen rescued at least 69 Rohingya refugees on Thursday after their vessel capsized a day earlier in the waters off Aceh province. 
The Search and Rescue Agency in Banda Aceh sent a ship to locate a capsized wooden boat on Wednesday evening following information from local fishermen who spotted the craft that morning. 
The search-and-rescue team finally found the boat and survivors on Thursday morning, after initial difficulties locating the vessel in the choppy waters off the coast of Aceh. 
“We managed to find the victims at 9 a.m., with the boat capsized and all of its passengers standing on top of the boat’s hull. And then we moved to evacuate the victims,” said Ibnu Harris Al-Hussain, head of Banda Aceh’s Search and Rescue Agency.
“We managed to find 69 people who are alive.” 
The group comprises 42 men, 18 women and nine children, who have since been handed over to immigration officials. 
It was unclear how many refugees were aboard the small craft when it capsized on Wednesday, but six survivors were initially rescued by local fishermen. 
The mostly Muslim Rohingya, referred to by the UN as the “world’s most persecuted minority,” have faced decades of persecution in Myanmar. More than 730,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh in 2017, following a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar military, which the UN said amounted to genocide. 
Thousands have been trying to flee the squalid and overcrowded camps in Bangladesh to Southeast Asian countries, with Indonesia seeing a sharp rise in refugee numbers since November. 
Indonesia has a history of taking in refugees on humanitarian grounds when they arrive on the country’s shores, despite not being a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees. But the latest surge of Rohingya arrivals prompted a backlash on social media and some pushback from Acehnese people.
Last year, about 569 Rohingya — out of nearly 4,500 people — died or went missing trying to relocate to another country through deadly sea crossings, often on rickety boats, the highest figure in nine years.