In Indonesia, students forcibly evict Rohingyas. In the west of the country, in the province of Aceh, hundreds of young people invaded a shelter which temporarily hosted more than a hundred Rohingya refugees. This is the latest incident linked to the hostility of the local population towards these refugees, members of the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority persecuted in Burma.
Since mid-November, more than 1,500 Rohingya refugees have fled their precarious camps in Bangladesh to reach the province of Aceh by sea, in makeshift boats. This is the largest movement of Rohingya migration to Indonesia since 2015, according to the United Nations.
After their dangerous crossing, these refugees face a new obstacle: hostility towards them from the local population. The students, many dressed in jackets with the insignia of various universities, entered a government building where 137 Rohingya refugees were hosted in Banda Aceh to demand their transfer to a local immigration office with a view to their deportation.
Clash between police and demonstrators
Shouting “put them out” and “no Rohingya in Aceh”, the students kicked the refugees’ belongings, according to footage filmed on site. Protesters also clashed with police who protected the frightened refugees before allowing the students to take them away.
The students burned tires and brought in trucks to take away the Rohingya, whom the police helped take to another nearby government site. In Aceh province, many residents, often remembering the decades of conflict between local separatists and the Indonesian army until the early 2000s, sympathize with their co-religionists. But others accuse the Rohingya of taking already scarce resources and sometimes quarreling with the local population.
Indonesia is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention and says it is not obliged to welcome these refugees, stigmatizing neighboring countries which have closed their doors to them.