More than 100 Rohingya refugees land in Indonesia: officials

More than 100 Rohingya refugees, incl. women & children, landed in Indonesia's Banda Aceh on Sat. Locals threatened to push them back to sea. The mostly Muslim Rohingya are persecuted in Myanmar & risk their lives to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.

More than 100 Rohingya refugees including women and children landed in Indonesia's westernmost province on Saturday, officials said, but locals were threatening to push them back to sea.

The arrival comes after more than 1,000 Rohingya refugees landed in Aceh last month, the biggest wave of Rohingya refugee arrivals in Indonesia since 2015, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).

The mostly Muslim Rohingya are heavily persecuted in Myanmar, and thousands risk their lives each year on long and expensive sea journeys, often in flimsy boats, to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.

"When I arrived, the Rohingya refugees were already on the beach," Dofa Fadhli, the head of Ie Meulee village where the latest group of Rohingya landed, told AFP.

Also Read | Boat carrying 71 Rohingya refugees lands in Indonesia

"The total of the refugees are 139 people. There were children, women and adult men. We have not counted in detail. {We are) waiting for other related parties," he said, adding the boat reached on the shores of the village in Aceh Province around 02:30 a.m. local time (1930 GMT Friday).

More than half a dozen boats have arrived in Aceh since November 14, and monitors say more are on their way, despite some locals turning arriving boats back to sea and stepping up patrols on the coast.