Rows and rows of neatly set blocks of two-roomed tenements line the eastern corner of Bhasan Char, a 40-square kilometer sand-bar island off the coast of Bangladesh on the Bay of Bengal within Bangladesh’s territorial waters. Women cradle their babies in the narrow and cramped balconies of this sprawling mass of concrete while the men … Read more
An Indonesian search and rescue ship yesterday rescued dozens of Rohingya refugees from a capsized wooden boat off the coast of Aceh, underscoring the peril of the ocean journeys from Bangladesh. According to a report from The Associated Press, which had a photographer aboard the Indonesian vessel, 59 people were saved by the search and … Read more
On December 27, just as the year was drawing to a close, a crowd of students broke through police barricades and barged into a temporary shelter housing Rohingya refugees in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, located at the northwestern tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island. Many of the refugees had landed on Aceh’s shores … Read more
In the span of a month between mid-November and mid-December of 2023, nine boats carrying 1,543 Rohingya disembarked in Aceh, Indonesia. It was the largest number of arrivals since the so-called 2015 Andaman Sea Crisis. Indonesia, and particularly local communities in the province of Aceh, was once heralded for its open and welcoming approach to … Read more
A harrowing scenario is currently playing itself out in Aceh, Indonesia, marked by political manipulation and a burgeoning humanitarian crisis. Recently arrived Rohingya refugees, a group plagued by relentless persecution and statelessness, have found themselves at the epicenter of a socio-political storm that transcends borders. The tensions reached a peak on December 27, when hundreds … Read more
More than 200 people protested yesterday in western Indonesia against the continued arrival of Rohingya refugees by boat, claiming that the sudden influx of people threatens to overwhelm local communities. More than 1,500 Rohingya civilians, seeking to escape the heaving, unsanitary, and crime-ridden refugee camps of southern Bangladesh, have washed up on Indonesia’s shores since … Read more
While the world has its eyes on the ongoing war in Palestine, Indonesia has been facing a small crisis of its own with the arrival of nearly 900 Rohingya refugees to the country’s Aceh Province over the past week. The conservative province, which is a special autonomous region and the only part of Indonesia to … Read more
More than 500 Rohingya civilians came ashore in Aceh province in western Indonesia yesterday after weeks at sea, the latest in a wave of new Rohingya arrivals from southeastern Bangladesh. According to reports by Reuters and BenarNews, which cited local officials and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), three vessels containing up to … Read more
Rohingya refugees carry a banner during a protest rally to commemorate the first anniversary of Myanmar army’s crackdown which lead to a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh, at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh, Aug. 25, 2018. Credit: AP Photo/Altaf Qadri Advertisement It was six years ago today, on August 25, 2017, that the … Read more
Advertisement In August 2017, the Myanmar military launched a genocidal campaign against the Rohingya community, triggering a severe humanitarian crisis. I was one of those who fled, making an 11-day journey by foot from northern Rakhine State in Myanmar, where my family and I were from, to the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh. … Read more