More Rohingya Migrants to Come Indonesia, UNHCR Warns

Bangladesh – The number of Rohingya immigrants making the risky boat journey across the Andaman Sea to escape has surpassed last year's numbers. They are fleeing due to growing hunger and desperation in Bangladeshi refugee camps.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that a boat with 150 Rohingya on board landed in western Indonesia Saturday morning. 

"That brings the total number of Rohingya fleeing across the Andaman Sea by boat to 3,722 so far this year," the UNHCR said in a statement, as reported by VOA News site. 

In its statement, the refugee agency said it had also received several reports of two more boats with broken engines stranded in the Andaman Sea. Those boats hold 400 or more people. 

The agency issued an urgent search and rescue call to countries in the area. In 2022, the UNHCR counted 3,705 Rohingya who tried to flee. That was the most for any year since 2015. December is a time when the waters are somewhat calm. And it is the time when most Rohingya try to leave. 

“We can’t predict what is going to happen in December, but if we look at last year, 2022, the last three months were the busiest," the UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch remarked. 

The Rohingya is a mostly Muslim minority from Buddhist-majority Myanmar. They currently live in several large refugee camps in eastern Bangladesh. Most arrived in 2017, fleeing what the United Nations calls a campaign of “genocidal intent” by the Myanmar military.

Now, some try to flee by boat to Malaysia or Indonesia, both Muslim-majority countries. Several hundred have died attempting to flee on old and overcrowded boats. Entire boats filled with refugees are believed to have been lost at sea.

Chris Lewa is with the Arakan Project, a group that closely follows the issue mentioned, “I believe there will be a lot more people on the way, but to (give) a figure is impossible,"

Aid groups and the Rohingya blame worsening conditions in the camps in Bangladesh for the increase in attempts to flee. The refugees complain of rising gang violence, a lack of jobs and schools, and little food.

The United Nations (UN) World Food Program is the main source of food aid for the refugees.

In June, it reduced the amount of monthly food aid, for the second time, to $8 (IDR 124 thousand) per person per month. The agency blamed lack of donor support for the cuts.

Additionally, the Rohingya are losing hope that they will be able to return safely to Myanmar where they are mostly denied citizenship.

In years past, the boats carried mostly single men and women. But the UNHCR says more families with children are now traveling together. This year nearly a third of those making the dangerous trip are children.

UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch explained Indonesia is the only country willing to take in the Rohingya. A 2016 presidential decision in Indonesia ordered officials to aid any boats at risk in the country’s waters and to let them land.

However, that may be starting to change. Last month, a boat that reached Aceh in Indonesia was reportedly pushed back out to sea twice. On the third try, it made it to land.