REPUBLICA.CO.ID, BANDA ACEH -- Aceh ulema Abi Hasbi Albayuni called on the government to immediately relocate the Rohingya refugees in the basement of the BMA Meseuraya Hall (BMA) building in Banda Aceh a more viable temporary shelter.

The leader of Dayah Thalibul Huda said the basement of the Balai Meseuraya Aceh building was unfit to be occupied by 137 Rohingya refugees. Refugees are dominated by groups of children and women.

“I see this as an unfit facility for them, while we have better facilities. I hope to the Aceh government to quickly relocate their placements to a more decent, more humane place,” he said in Banda Aceh on Monday (8/1/2024).

He explained that in fact the government has decent facilities to temporarily accommodate these refugees, one of which is the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) building complex in Aceh. Therefore, he called on the people of the Serambi area of Makkah to stop calling for the rejection of Rohingya refugees and join together to help them on humanitarian and brotherly grounds.

“Personally I see that people should not refuse, let alone that this is already the responsibility of the government,” he said.

“Our government has facilities, there is a PMI building for example. The facility is in an easy place, so the people there should not resist the truth, and they should support this government program,” he said.

He added that everything issues about Rohingya ethnicity that circulate on social media are not necessarily true. So he invited the people of Aceh to tabayyun or seek clarity when receiving news so as not to be affected by erroneous information.

“So we don't believe in outside issues, while we don't trust in our own government, which (we) can directly face to face, if anyone who is not understood can be directly asked, can be directly tabayyun,” he said.

Moreover, clerics have called for care to the Rohingya refugees. He hopes the people of Aceh can be open to accepting Rohingya refugees.

“Because if we remember ourselves as Acehnese in that conflict, we too were once, so we fled to the country of the people, but were accommodated in the country of the people. That is also the hope of us (for the Rohingya),” he said.

Earlier, Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law, and Security (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud MD organized the transfer of ethnic Rohingya refugees in Aceh to the PMI Aceh building. It comes after hundreds of students in Aceh staged a protest against Rohingya refugees in the basement of the BMA building at the end of last year.

However, the discourse of the relocation of Rohingya to the Aceh PMI building on Jalan Ajuen Jeumpet, Darul Imarah District, Greater Aceh was immediately rejected by local residents, fearing that it could cause conflict and harm the local community.

The rejection came after a number of community leaders, youth, keuchik (village head), as well as District Leaders (Muspika) deliberations Darul Imarah and Peukan Bada held a coordination meeting at PMI Aceh Building on Wednesday (3/1/2024).

“I bring the result of today's meeting is the decision of all residents of Gampong Ajuen, that they object to the placement of Rohingya refugees in PMI Aceh. We object, security reasons and many other things,” said Keuchik Gampong Ajuen Ferdiansyah

in Aceh Besar.

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