Boat Carrying 121 Rohingya Stranded in North Aceh

 February 27, 2013
Thejakartaglobe
Nurdin Hasan 

Banda Aceh. A boat carrying 121 Burmese from the predominantly Muslim Rohingya ethnic group has been stranded on a shoal off Cot Trueng in North Aceh district, a local official said on Wednesday.

The boat, about 15 meters long and 8 meters wide, ran out of fuel. After drifting for a few days, it got stranded at around 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Cot Trueng village head Mukthar said.

"When they were found, they were weak because they say they had not eaten for days," Mukthar told journalists.

Local residents provided them with food and water as well as some second-hand clothes, he said. They were then given temporary shelter at a local mosque, although they remained under the guard of police and immigration personnel.

Mukthar said the boatpeople claimed to have left Myanmar on Jan. 30 bound for Thailand. "About a week ago, they ran out of  fuel and drifted for days before they finally got stranded here," he said.

Albert Delius, the head of the supervisory and enforcement section of the immigration office in Lhokseumawe, said the Burmese numbered 121, including two women and two infants.

He said they were taken on Wednesday morning to a former office of the Immigration Office in Peunteut, some 25 kilometers from Cot Trueng, and were put under quarantine there.

"Immigration officials are currently taking their data, for the moment, just their name and age," he said, adding that many appeared to be mere teenagers.

Albert said some of the Rohingya could communicate in Malay or English.

"We left Myanmar to save ourselves and we want to live in peace," one of the boatpeople identified as Along was quoted by the Kompas online news portal as saying. He also said that eight of the passengers died during the journey.

The new arrivals were the sixth batch of Rohingya to be stranded in Aceh since 2009.