Indonesia: Students protest over increasing numbers of Rohingya refugees

After more Rohingya refugees arrived by boat on Wednesday, students in the Indonesian province of Aceh staged a protest, calling on the government to expel them. The protest came as police named more suspects in human trafficking.

Since November, more than 1,500 Rohingya have arrived in Aceh, on the tip of Sumatra, having fled violent attacks in Myanmar and now are leaving camps in neighboring Bangladesh in search of better lives. In Aceh, they have encountered some animosity from other Muslims.

In Banda Aceh, the provincial capital of Aceh province, about 200 students staged a protest in front of the provincial parliament, urging lawmakers to reject the Rohingya refugees, claiming their presence would cause social and economic unrest in the area.

The protesters chanted Get out Rohingya! and criticised the government and the UN refugee agency for failing to manage the refugee arrivals. Some protesters burned tires on the street.

We urged the parliament speaker to immediately take a firm action to remove all Rohingya refugees from Aceh, said Teuku Wariza, a protest organiser.

The protesters marched to a local community hall in Banda Aceh, where about 135 Rohingya were taking shelter. The demonstrators threw out clothes and household items belonging to the refugees, forcing authorities to relocate them to another shelter.

Indonesia had once tolerated the refugees while Thailand and Malaysia pushed them away. But the growing hostility of some Indonesians toward the Rohingya has put pressure on President Joko Widodo’s government to take action.

Widodo earlier this month said the government suspected a surge in human trafficking for the increase in Rohingya arrivals.

Police in Banda Aceh on Wednesday named two more suspected human smugglers from Bangladesh and Myanmar following the arrival of one boat of refugees on Dec 10. One of them, the captain, himself a refugee, was charged with trafficking.

This is not an easy issue, this is an issue with enormous challenges, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters. The UNHCR has reiterated his commitment to continue to assist the Indonesian government in addressing this situation.

About 740,000 Rohingya were resettled in Bangladesh after fleeing their homes in Myanmar to escape a brutal counterinsurgency campaign carried out in 2017 by security forces. Accusations of mass rape, murder and the burning of entire villages are well documented, and international courts are considering whether Myanmar authorities committed genocide and other grave human rights abuses.

Efforts to repatriate the Rohingya have failed because of doubts their safety can be assured. The Rohingya are largely denied citizenship rights in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and face widespread social discrimination.

(with inputs from The Associated Press)