More than 70 Rohingya are missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Aceh province, Indonesia. They are feared dead. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported this fear on Friday (March 22). Another 75 people were rescued alive in this incident. British news agency Reuters reported this news.
In a joint statement with the International Organization for Migration, the UNHCR said the death toll, if confirmed, would be the biggest loss of life this year.
A wooden boat carrying Rohingyas sank off Indonesia’s Aceh province on Wednesday. Then the local fishermen rescued six people. A fishing community in the city of Aceh said they had been waiting on the shore for hours after the boat capsized due to high tide.
A search and rescue team departed from Aceh province a few hours later. As the boat drifted far from the coast, it became difficult to identify it. They were found later on Thursday afternoon.
Myanmar is a Buddhist-majority country. Rohingyas have been forced to leave Myanmar due to a crackdown by the country’s security forces. The country’s authorities consider the Rohingya as foreigners, usually from South Asia, and deny them citizenship.
According to UNHCR data, more than 2,300 Rohingya arrived in Indonesia last year. This number surpasses the total of the previous four years.
In January, UNHCR reported that at least 569 Rohingya had died or gone missing in 2023 after fleeing Myanmar or Bangladesh.
Babar Baloch, UNHCR’s Asia spokesman, told Reuters on Friday that 151 Rohingya were on board in this latest boating incident. About 75 of them were rescued by the local authorities. The rest were presumed ‘dead or missing’.
Faisal Rahman, UNHCR’s protection associate in Aceh, told Reuters that the Rohingya survivors were doing well. They are housed in a Red Cross building in West Aceh.
Aceh’s immigration agency did not respond to a request for comment.
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