Rohingya refugees undergo Covid-19 quarantine after Indonesia allows damaged boat to dock
- Efforts to rescue passengers, mainly women and children, began after Indonesia’s government said it would allow the vessel to dock because conditions were so severe
- United Nations refugee agency is assisting the government and local community to establish a quarantine process in line with international public health protocols
A group of 120 Rohingya Muslims disembarked from a boat that had drifted for days off Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh and was towed by a navy ship into port, officials said on Friday.
The refugees’ wooden boat was reportedly leaking and had a damaged engine. Efforts to rescue its passengers, who are overwhelmingly women and children, began after Indonesia’s government on Wednesday said it would allow them to dock because conditions on the boat were so severe.
The broken-down boat was towed by a navy ship early Thursday from its location about 85 kilometres off the coast of Bireuen, a district in Aceh, toward Krueng Geukueh seaport in neighbouring Lhokseumawe, a coastal town in the North Aceh district, said navy Western fleet command spokesman Colonel La Ode M Holib.
High waves and bad weather hampered the rescue operation, and the navy ship was moving 5 knots per hour to keep the towed boat from capsizing, Holib said. The boat docked safely just after midnight on Friday.
Authorities used buses to move the Rohingya refugees from the port to a nearby warehouse, providing temporary shelter amid heavy monsoon rains. The refugees will all be tested for the coronavirus, Holib added.
The boat was first sighted by local fishermen on Sunday about 96km off the coast of Bireuen, said Badruddin Yunus, the leader of the local tribal fishing community.
He said fishermen provided food, water and clothes to the passengers, including 60 women, 51 children and nine men, who said they wanted to go to Malaysia and had been at sea for 28 days before the boat’s engine broke down.
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‘In the name of humanity’, Indonesia welcomes Rohingya refugees found adrift on broken boat