In Indonesia, fake UN accounts spewing anti-refugee hate feed rejection of Rohingya
- Much of the resistance to Rohingya refugees stems from online misinformation, human rights activists say, as well as organised attacks against the UN
- More than 1,500 Rohingya Muslims have arrived in Indonesia’s Aceh province since mid-November. Officials say they’ve been ‘overwhelmed’ by the influx
“We are very much concerned that real people fell for these fake accounts, as well as the disinformation that is being orchestrated from real accounts,” Miklos Gaspar, director at the United Nations Information Centre in Jakarta, told This Week in Asia.
“The objective [of the organised hate campaigns] appears to be to make it more difficult for the local authorities and the United Nations Human Rights Council to cooperate on finding temporary shelters and providing human interior assistance [to the refugees].”
“Our demand is to reject them all. They must leave. Because Sabang people are also having a hard time, they cannot accommodate any more people,” one protester, Samsul Bahri, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
‘Parasites’: spike in Rohingya arrivals tests Aceh’s sympathy for their plight
The protesting Acehnese also claimed that Rohingya have been behaving badly and not following local rules. On December 9, a Rohingya man was assaulted over an allegation that he had sexually harassed a woman at a shelter. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said this was a misunderstanding.
Of the 17,380 comments it received since November 21 about four Rohingya-related posts on one of its official Instagram accounts, @UNinIndonesia, the UN assessed that 91 per cent could be classified as “hate comments”, the report said.
“Almost all of the comments stated a similar message asking for the dissolution of the UN and the UNHCR. This strongly suggests that the messages are orchestrated and are not grass roots,” it said.
“Some [of the commenters] stated that they didn’t know what UNHCR is, but they [wrote] hate comments anyway.”
The UN has reported one user named Ali Hamza, who has amassed more than 313,000 and 918,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, respectively, to Meta and ByteDance representatives in Indonesia.
“We are reporting him for messages related to him saying that Rohingya should be kicked out because Indonesia will turn into the next Palestine following their arrival,” the report said.
TikTok said in a statement that accounts impersonating UNHCR Indonesia “will be removed”, while Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment from This Week in Asia. Ali Hamza’s accounts and posts discrediting the Rohingya remained available to view on both platforms as of Friday.
A fake UNHCR account, which has since been deleted, also recently went viral on TikTok after saying that it hopes “the government can provide the Rohingyas with housing, food, accommodation, and Indonesian identity cards.”
The comment spawned anger on X, formerly known as Twitter, with many echoing the sentiments of user @heraloebss, who said that “Rohingya are a ticking bomb for Indonesia”.
Another X user, @ayatsucii, claimed “there are six more boats that will enter Aceh. If we let it, the people of Aceh could be colonised [by the Rohingyas].” The same claim of invasion by Rohingyas was also amplified on TikTok by popular stand-up comic Marshel Widianto.
On TikTok, another fake UNHCR account, which claimed to be run by its staff in Indonesia, was still up and running as of Friday, and its 12 videos had already gained more likes than the 34 videos on UNHCR Indonesia’s official account.
Not all Indonesians are falling for the propaganda, however. A popular X user called @neohistoria_id, for example, created a viral thread highlighting the actual plight of the Rohingya.
“The party most responsible for the emergence of this problem is the Myanmar government, which considers the Rohingya ethnic group like a pebble in a shoe,” the user said in a tweet on December 8.
“The Indonesian government will take firm action against the perpetrators,” he said, adding that Jakarta would provide temporary humanitarian assistance to the refugees and coordinate with the UNHCR and other international organisations to tackle the issue.
Indonesia has intervened. However, this is overwhelming
Mohamad Mahfud, coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, said that Indonesia was being “overwhelmed” by the crisis.
“Indonesia has intervened. However, this is overwhelming as the Acehnese have refused [the Rohingya], they said that they also have needs for land and food. Indonesia actually did not sign the UN convention on refugees. However, for the sake of humanity, Indonesia continues to help,” he said on December 4.
Speaking at the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva on December 13, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi sought help from the international community to solve the Rohingya issue by restoring democracy in Myanmar and eradicating human trafficking.
The crackdown in Aceh has led police to arrest 11 Rohingya suspected of being linked to a people-smuggling network that transported the refugees to Southeast Asian countries for a fee of between 3 million rupiah and 15 million rupiah (US$200-US$955).
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Young refugees flee Bangladesh camps in hopes of receiving education in Indonesia
Escaping Bangladesh
Wirya Adimena, a deputy director at Amnesty International Indonesia, said that not all Acehnese despised the Rohingya, despite recent headlines about locals resisting the influx of refugees.
“In Amnesty’s interactions with the people of Aceh, they showed extraordinary goodwill in rescuing refugees adrift at sea, even when the government was not ready to do so. They show the best of humanity,” he said.
“If there are residents who are worried about the existence of refugees, we should not let their anxieties clash with the real needs of the Rohingya refugees, who have gone through a number of challenges to get to Aceh.”
He added that Indonesia’s government must be firm in its commitment to protecting refugees and residents alike.
“As part of the international community, it is the government’s duty to ensure the safety of refugees in their process of seeking asylum,” he said.
Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti, a forced migration expert with the Jakarta-based National Research and Innovation Agency, urged the Indonesian government to be more proactive in combating hoaxes against the Rohingya.
“On the regional level, Asean has a senior official meeting mechanism for transnational crime. This must be further intensified. Human trafficking issues should be a common concern among Asean states,” Tri said.
The situation in Cox’s Bazar, where more than 900,000 Rohingya have sheltered in an unsanitary mega camp since being driven out of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, has become increasingly untenable as crimes and violence skyrocket.
Rohingya problems deepen as violence surges in Bangladesh refugee camps
A report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank released on December 11 found that one Rohingya militant group in Cox’s Bazar named the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, has become “increasingly predatory by asserting power through intimidation and violence”.
“ARSA activities included camp patrols, forced recruitment, threatening female Rohingya students and NGO volunteers, and taxation of informal shopkeepers and NGO volunteers at rates as high as 40 per cent of their earnings,” the report said.
In addition to the unsafe living conditions and violence, declining donor support – and restrictive Bangladeshi government policies that prevent the Rohingya from pursuing education and earning sustainable livelihoods – have also contributed to a surge of refugees taking to rickety boats to seek safety elsewhere in Southeast Asia, it added.
