Nearly 300 Rohingya refugees have landed in Indonesia, telling authorities they had been at sea for about six months. Police said fishermen spotted a wooden boat carrying the Rohingya several miles off the coast of Lhokseumawe city on Sumatra’s northern coast. The boat contained 297 people, including 14 children, police said. The Rohingya have for years been fleeing persecution in Myanmar for other south-east Asian nations. The arrival in Indonesia was the biggest seen since 2015, said Chris Lewa, the director of the Arakan Project, a non-profit group focusing on the Rohingya crisis. The refugees set sail from southern Bangladesh at the end of March or early April, bound for Malaysia, Ms Lewa said, but were turned back by both Malaysian and Thai authorities because of coronavirus restrictions.
Rohingya crisis: Nearly 300 refugees land in Indonesia after months at sea – BBC News
