Rohingya migrants reach Indonesia 'after seven months at sea'

Ethnic Rohingya people rest after the boat carrying them landed in Lhokseumawe, Aceh province. Almost 300 Rohingya Muslims were found on a beach in Indonesia's Aceh province Monday and were evacuated by military, police and Red Cross volunteers, authorities said.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar due to a military crackdown, and many live in densely crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh. Rights activists fear large numbers of Rohingya have gone to sea, fleeing ongoing persecution in Myanmar and hardship in the camps in Bangladesh where traffickers may promise the refugees a better life abroad.

Rohingya migrants look on following their arrival by boat in Lhokseumawe, Aceh. Almost 300 Rohingya Muslims were found on a beach in Indonesia's Aceh province Monday and were evacuated by military, police and Red Cross volunteers, authorities said. The group arrived at Ujong Blang beach from one boat and were reported by local residents.

An ethnic Rohingya woman is assisted to walk by others after the boat carrying them landed in Lhokseumawe. Junaidi Yahya, head of the Red Cross in Lhokseumawe, said the group was currently being held in a temporary location.We hope they can be moved to the evacuation centre today, but their health, especially related to COVID-19, is our main concern" said Yahya.

The group was reported to be the largest to land in Indonesia since at least 2015.

In June, Indonesian fishermen discovered 94 hungry, weak Rohingya Muslims on a wooden boat adrift off Aceh, Indonesia's westernmost province.

Images of the Rohingya arrivals show lines of women in masks carrying their possessions in plastic bags, and men huddled on the floor of a thatched roof shelter. Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project - an NGO that focuses on the Rohingya crisis - said the migrants may have been held at sea while traffickers extorted money from their families. "These people were actually kept hostage," she said.

Local residents inspect the boat carrying hundreds of ethnic Rohingya people that landed on a beach in Lhokseumawe, Aceh province.