The bodies of at least five Rohingya refugees have been recovered off Indonesia’s westernmost coast after their boat, believed to be carrying around 150 people, capsized last week, United Nations officials said on March 25.

The mostly Muslim ethnic Rohingya are heavily persecuted in Myanmar, and thousands risk their lives each year on long and expensive sea journeys, often in flimsy boats, to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.

Indonesian rescuers called off the search for any remaining Rohingya refugees on March 22 after 75 were rescued, despite reports from some survivors that dozens of people had been swept away when their boat, and another trying to help them, capsized days earlier.

“One more dead body found,” United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) protection associate Faisal Rahman told AFP on March 25, after the local authorities confirmed four bodies had been recovered a day earlier.

UNHCR Indonesia spokesperson Mitra Suryono said four bodies were found off the coast of Aceh Jaya district on the northern tip of Sumatra and one in West Aceh, where the capsizing had taken place about 30km off the coast.

West Aceh Police Deputy Chief Iswahyudi, who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name, told AFP the fifth body was a male found by fishermen on the night of March 24.

On March 21, the authorities staged a dramatic rescue of 69 Rohingya who had been adrift at sea for weeks before the boat capsized, with many found clinging to the hull of the overturned vessel. Six others were rescued by fishermen on March 20.

From mid-November to late January, 1,752 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, landed in the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra, according to the UNHCR.

The UN agency said it was the biggest influx into the Muslim-majority country since 2015, driven by worsening conditions in squalid camps in Bangladesh and the continuing threat of violence in the Rohingya’s native Myanmar.

Source: The Straits Times