Boat adrift at sea for weeks carrying Rohingya refugees reaches Indonesia’s Aceh
The boat which reached Aceh, Indonesia on Monday afternoon had over 180 ethnic Rohingya men, women and children in it.
The boat which reached Aceh, Indonesia on Monday afternoon had over 180 ethnic Rohingya men, women and children in it.
When the Myanmar military began a clearance operation against them in 2017, several members of the community were forced to flee.
Contending before a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde, Advocate Prashant Bhushan said that that the detained Rohingyas may be deported to Myanmar which is currently under Army's control and also seeing violence.
While human rights groups acknowledge there are criminal elements among some of the Rohingya refugees, they have urged authorities to thoroughly investigate such cases.
The Dhaka Tribune said the ship was packed with nearly 500 Rohingya.
Bangladesh officials on Thursday travelled to several camps in the western part of the country but did not find any refugee willing to return to Myanmar.
"This repatriation is not going to be sustainable," Abdur Rahim, a leader of Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, said.
The two governments agreed to repatriate 2,251 of over 700,000 Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh camps, in the first of a phased process.
The WFP said it had spent around $20 million to assist the refugees in Bangladesh following the crackdown in Myanmar in August 2017.
Seven Rohingya men, who were lodged in Silchar Central Jail since 2012, were recently deported to Myanmar after the Supreme Court dismissed a petition challenging the action.
