Boat with 180 Rohingya refugees arrives in Indonesia
STORY: The head of a clinic in Aceh receiving the refugees said more than 30 of them were children or young children.
Two other boats carrying a total of 230 Rohingya landed in Aceh last month, while Sri Lanka's navy has rescued 104 Rohingya this month.
One of the refugees, Umar Farukh, told Reuters on Monday he fled Bangladesh in hope for an opportunity to receive education in Indonesia.
The number of Rohingya leaving Bangladesh in boats this year has jumped more than five-fold from a year earlier to nearly 2,400, rights groups estimate. It is not clear if the lifting of COVID restrictions in Southeast Asia, a favoured destination, has led to the rush of people.
Nearly 1 million Rohingya from Myanmar are living in crowded facilities in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, including tens of thousands who fled their home country after its military conducted a deadly crackdown in 2017. In Buddhist-majority Myanmar, most Rohingya are denied citizenship and are seen as illegal immigrants from South Asia.
