Rohingya Refugees Refuse to be Sent Back Home

Jakarta (Antara) - 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. 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.(*)