Over 1,500 Rohingya have landed in Indonesia since November, according to data from the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNCHR), facing increasing hostility and rejection as locals grow frustrated at the numbers of boats arriving.
On Wednesday (Dec 27), a large crowd of Indonesian students stormed a convention centre housing hundreds of Rohingya in the Aceh capital, calling for their deportation.
The UNHCR said it was “deeply disturbed to see a mob attack on a site sheltering vulnerable refugee families”.
For years, Rohingya have left Myanmar, where they are generally regarded as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship and subjected to abuse. They usually leave mostly to Indonesia or neighbouring Malaysia from November to April, when the seas are calmer.
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees but has a history of taking in refugees if they arrive.
Indonesia has urged Myanmar authorities to halt violence against Rohingya Muslims and says it will crack down on suspected human traffickers involved in the latest wave of arrivals.