MURABO, Indonesia (AP) – An Indonesian search and rescue vessel spotted a capsized wooden boat carrying dozens of Rohingya Muslim refugees on Thursday and pulled survivors who were standing on the hull to safety. I started pulling up.
An Associated Press photographer on board the rescue boat said 10 people were taken to a local fishing boat and another 59 were rescued by an Indonesian fishing boat.
Men, women and children, weakened and drenched by the night's rain, wept as rescue efforts began and people were carried in rubber dinghies to rescue boats.
There were conflicting reports about whether anyone died in the accident, and survivors said many people who were on the boat when it left Bangladesh are still missing, but authorities say all He claimed to have been rescued.
“We tested all the 69 Rohingya we rescued, and the tests did not give any information about their deaths,” Fatur, a rescue worker who gave his name only, told reporters. Ta. “We managed to evacuate all 69 people, but no one was declared dead.”
Rohingya refugees rescued from a capsized boat sit on a National Search and Rescue Agency boat off the coast of West Aceh, Indonesia, Thursday, March 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Reza Saifullah)
A total of 75 people on board the boat were rescued, including six Rohingya who were rescued by a civilian fishing boat that was at the scene well before authorities launched a formal rescue operation.
However, Samira, 17, one of the refugees who was traveling to Malaysia from the Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh, said there were 146 people on board the ship, with 71 possibly still missing at sea. This raises the prospect that there is a possibility that
She said the boat started sinking three days ago and capsized on Wednesday, adding that her nephew was among the missing.
“We are all very saddened,” she said. “We are very hungry and weak.”
When fishing boats arrived on the scene on Wednesday, desperate refugees clamored aboard one of the boats, overloading it and capsizing it. It was not immediately clear what happened to the crew.
Official search and rescue teams departed from Banda Aceh city on Wednesday evening after receiving a call from fishermen on Wednesday morning about refugees in need of help. They did not arrive at the accident scene until early morning and initially could not find the capsized boat.
When they encountered the ship at noon on Thursday, they found refugees in its hull desperately pleading for help.
They rescued 42 men, 18 women and nine children, some of whom were taken to a temporary evacuation center in Aceh Besar district and others taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Amiruddin, a tribal fishing community leader in Aceh Barat district, said the rescued people were sailing east when their boat started leaking and were then pushed west of Aceh by strong currents. He said it shows.
Approximately 740,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to escape the violence. brutal counter-insurgency operation By the security forces of my home country of Myanmar.
thousands of people are trying to escape Overcrowded camps in Bangladesh Indonesia has seen a sharp increase in the number of refugees since November and is appealing to neighboring countries for refugees. International community for help. Rohingya who arrive in Aceh face hostility from some Muslims.
Indonesia, like Thailand and Malaysia, is not party to the United Nations' 1951 Refugee Convention, which provides legal protection, so it is not obliged to accept them. But so far, they have provided temporary shelter to struggling refugees.
Last year, there were about 4,500 Rohingya, two-thirds of them women and children. I fled my homeland of Myanmar. and visited refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh by boat, the United Nations refugee agency reported. Of these, 569 people died or went missing while crossing the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, the highest death toll since 2014.
A safe return to Myanmar is virtually impossible because of the military that attacked them. Overthrow the democratically elected Myanmar government in 2021. No country offers them large-scale resettlement opportunities.
A Rohingya refugee stands on a capsized boat before being rescued in waters off West Aceh, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Reza Saifullah)
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Tarrigan reported from Jakarta. Associated Press journalist David Rising contributed to this article from Bangkok.
