Indonesian protesters storm refugee shelter, call for deportation of Rohingya
- Rohingya have experienced increasing hostility in Indonesia as locals grow frustrated at the number of boats arriving from Myanmar with the ethnic minority
- More than 1,500 Rohingya refugees have arrived on the shores of Aceh province since mid-November, in what the UN says is the biggest influx in eight years
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A large crowd of Indonesian students stormed a convention centre housing hundreds of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in the city of Banda Aceh on Wednesday, demanding they be deported, Reuters footage showed.
A city police spokesperson in Banda Aceh did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Footage showed the students, many wearing green jackets, run into the building’s large basement space, where crowds of Rohingya men, women and children were seated on the floor and crying in fear.
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The Rohingya were then led out by authorities, some carrying their belongings in plastic sacks, and taken to trucks to transport them to alternative shelter, as the protesters looked on.
Rohingya refugees have experienced increasing hostility and rejection in Indonesia as locals grow frustrated at the numbers of boats arriving with the ethnic minority, who face persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has blamed the recent surge in arrivals on human trafficking, and has promised to work with international organisations to offer temporary shelter.
More than 1,500 Rohingya refugees have arrived on the shores of Aceh province since mid-November, in what the United Nations says is the biggest influx in eight years. Some of their boats have faced rejection by locals and in some cases have been returned to sea.
Arrivals tend to spike between November and April, when the seas are calmer, with Rohingya taking boats to neighbouring Thailand and Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia.
Wariza Anis Munandar, a 23-year-old student in Banda Aceh speaking at an earlier protest rally in the city on Wednesday called for the deportation of the Rohingya while another student, 20-year-old Della Masrida, said “they came here uninvited, they feel like it is their country.”
Many Acehnese, who themselves have memories of decades of bloody conflict, are sympathetic to the plight of their fellow Muslims.
We protested because we don’t agree with the Rohingyas who keep coming here
But others say their patience has been tested, claiming the Rohingyas consume scarce resources and occasionally come into conflict with locals.
“Acehnese used to welcome them but as we know, there are traffickers who smuggled Rohingyas into Aceh … So, we as the students support the Acehnese’s decision,” said university student Muhammad Khalis.
“We protested because we don’t agree with the Rohingyas who keep coming here,” said Kholilullah, a 23-year-old university student who goes by one name.
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A UNHCR Indonesia spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday’s incident.
UNCHR said earlier this month the agency was “alarmed” by the reports of rejection in Indonesia.
Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees but has a history of taking in refugees if they arrive.
For years, Rohingya have left Myanmar, where they are generally regarded as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship and subjected to abuse.
