REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Rohingya refugees who were stranded in Aceh waters and now being sheltered at a Fish Landing Base square of Kuala Cangkoi, North Aceh, refused to be repatriated to Myanmar.
"When I asked them they all said they refused to be sent back home," volunteer Hilal Merah Hilmi Bakar said on the phone here on Sunday (17/5).
Hilmi said most of them could only speak their native language but some could speak a little Arabic. So, he communicated with them through a sign language and a little Arabic.
"I asked them in a little Arabic. They wept and refused to be repatriated because they might die in their own homeland," Hilmi said.
He said that their conditions were improving and they began socializing with the local people. They were happy for being saved after drifting in the sea for four months and were accepted well by the local people of Aceh.
A total of 583 foreign refugees, of which 240 are Bangladeshis who have left their countries to seek jobs in Malaysia, are stranded in North Aceh.
The Bangladeshis are now sheltered at Lhokseumawe immigration office for further identification.
A team from the UNHCR is studying them to identify who of them are really refugees and who are job seekers.
Those who are sick is undergoing recovery therapy, physically and psychologically.
Earlier on Friday, several local fishermen rescued a barge carrying 648 Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees, which got stranded in the Malacca Strait about 20 miles from Pusong beach, East Aceh District, a local immigration officer stated.
The barge carrying the refugees was towed to Kuala Langsa Port by several local fishing boats at about 5 a.m. local time, the immigration officer informed Antara on Friday.
The refugees comprise 418 Bangladeshi men and 230 Rohingyas, including 55 children and 62 women. They fled their homeland aboard two vessels. However, one of the vessels sank, and hence, all the refugees on board the sinking boat were transferred to the barge, he pointed out.
When the refugees were found by some local fishermen, they were suffering from severe dehydration and starvation as they had been floating aboard the barge for days before being rescued, he remarked.
The Indonesian military and police personnel, rescue workers, Indonesian Red Cross' volunteers, and those from several civilian agencies worked together to assist the refugees.
On Sunday, a total of 587 refugees from Myanmar also got stranded in the waters of North Aceh District and were then given shelter in Kuala Cangkoi Village, Lapang Sub-district, North Aceh District, about 300 kilometers away from the east of Banda Aceh city.
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