Indonesia’s Joko Widodo cites traffickers for Rohingya refugee influx
- The Indonesian president says his government ‘will take strict action against human trafficking perpetrators’
- The latest arrivals of 139 refugees were met with a protest on Wednesday, with locals threatening to push the refugees back to sea
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Friday his government suspected a human trafficking network was behind the rising number of Rohingya refugees reaching his country by boat.
The mostly Muslim Rohingya face heavy persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar – including a 2017 crackdown that is subject to a UN genocide probe – and many have fled over the border to camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.
From there, thousands risk their lives each year on dangerous and expensive sea journeys to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia – voyages of about 1,800km (1,120 miles).
Last month saw a spike in arrivals to Indonesia’s westernmost province of Aceh, with more than 1,000 Rohingya refugees landing there in the largest such wave since 2015.
“There is strong suspicion of the involvement of human trafficking networks in this refugee influx,” Widodo told a press conference.
He vowed that his government “will take strict action against human trafficking perpetrators”.