A Newly arrived Rohingya refugee walks to the beach after the local community decided to temporarily allow them to land for water and food in Ulee Madon, Aceh province, Indonesia.AMANDA JUFRIAN/AFP/Getty Images
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Around 200 Rohingya reached the shores of Indonesia’s Aceh province on Thursday.AMANDA JUFRIAN/AFP/Getty Images
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The latest group of Rohingya refugees landed in Aceh’s Bireun region in the afternoon and comprised mostly of women and children.AMANDA JUFRIAN/AFP/Getty Images
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Many members of the ethnic Rohingya Muslims, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, have for years boarded rickety wooden boats to escape to Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as Thailand.AMANDA JUFRIAN/AFP/Getty Images
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Newly arrived Rohingya refugees are stranded on a boat as the nearby community decided not to allow them to land after providing water and food in Pineung, Aceh province.AMANDA JUFRIAN/AFP/Getty Images
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Around 200 Rohingya reached the shores of Indonesia’s Aceh province on Thursday.AMANDA JUFRIAN/AFP/Getty Images
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A newly arrived Rohingya refugee lies on the sand after the nearby community decided not to allow them to land but gave them water and food in Pineung, Aceh province.AMANDA JUFRIAN/AFP/Getty Images
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A man gives water to a newly arrived Rohingya refugee after he swam to the beach in Pineung, Aceh province.AMANDA JUFRIAN/AFP/Getty Images
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Rohingya refugees wait to be transferred to a shelter in Batee beach, Aceh province, Indonesia.AFP Contributor#AFP/Getty Images
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Rohingya refugees queue for breakfast following their arrival at a makeshift shelter in Padang Tiji, Indonesia's Aceh province.CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN/AFP/Getty Images
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The seat reserved for Myanmar's head of delegation, right, is left empty during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus in Jakarta, Indonesia.Willy Kurniawan/The Associated Press
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A Rohingya refugee bathes his child following their arrival at a makeshift shelter in Padang Tiji, Indonesia's Aceh province.CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN/AFP/Getty Images
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Newly-arrived Rohingya refugee holding a child gestures after arriving at Batee beach, Aceh province, Indonesia,AFP Contributor#AFP/Getty Images
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A local fisherman's boat (R) tows the boat of newly arrived Rohingya refugees to land on the beach in Pineung, Aceh province.AMANDA JUFRIAN/AFP/Getty Images
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Around 200 Rohingya reached the shores of Indonesia’s Aceh province on Thursday, the head of the provincial fishing community said, the third boat to arrive in as many days and taking total arrivals over this period to about 600.
Many members of the ethnic Rohingya Muslims, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, have for years boarded rickety wooden boats to escape to Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as Thailand.
The latest group of Rohingya refugees landed in Aceh’s Bireun region in the afternoon and comprised mostly of women and children, the head of local fishing community Miftah Cut Ade told Reuters.
Photos he shared appeared to show the Rohingya sitting huddling on the beach, facing the sea.
Up to 200 Rohingya landed in Aceh’s Pidie region on Wednesday and a day before that, 196 others arrived. Miftah said based on the Rohingya’s account, they had departed from Bangladesh.
Hundreds more had reached Aceh earlier this year, many having been at sea for months.
Nearly one million Rohingya are living in camps in Bangladesh in what U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi described as “the biggest humanitarian refugee camp in the world”.
Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry said the Southeast Asian country “has no obligation nor capacity to accommodate refugees, let alone to provide permanent solution”, underscoring that Jakarta is not a signatory of the UN refugee convention.
“We have also identified that Indonesia’s kindness in providing temporary shelter has been misused by people smugglers,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Lalu Muhamad Iqbal, said in a statement.
The recent arrivals come as Myanmar’s generals face their biggest test since seizing power in a 2021 coup, with insurgent groups gaining ground in several parts of the country in a coordinated offensive against the junta.
