New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Indonesian Navy on Tuesday rescued another batch of Rohingya boatpeople near Sumatra Island, an official of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said.
Teuku Faizasyah, Foreign Affairs spokesperson of Indonesia on Tuesday told Mizzima that the Indonesian Navy had rescued a second batch of boatpeople from Burma on boats drifting in the sea near Sumatra Island.
"We received information that the local fishermen found a group of Rohingya on a boat off the Indonesia coast," said Faizasyah. "But it is still uncertain as to the number of Rohingya who were rescued by the navy. We are trying to verify that."
Faizasyah added that some of them were in bad health and were taken to hospital for treatment in eastern Aceh province.
According to, Anita Restu spokesperson of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) office in Indonesia, local fishermen early on Tuesday morning found 198 boatpeople drifting in the sea near the coast of Aceh.
"There were a total of 220 people on the boats before they were found, but 22 died on sea," Restu said quoting navy officials to Mizzima.
According to reports, the survivors said they have been drifting on the sea for about three weeks after the Thai navy towed them out to sea.
Reports said, since December, the Thai Navy had pushed back at least 1,000 Rohingya boatpeople, who illegally tried to enter Thailand from Burma and Bangladesh, into the sea.
So far, around 600 have been found near the waters of Indonesia and India but around 400 are still missing, reports said.
On January 7, Indonesian authorities rescued 193 Rohingya boatpeople near Aceh province.
Faizasyah told Mizzima earlier that the Indonesian government is discussing about the issue of the first batch of boatpeople and they will be handed over to the Immigration department.
"The way we see it, they look like having economic motives and there is some kind of arrangement on what to do with them," Faizasyah told Mizzima.
The UNHCR office in Indonesia had sent two letters requesting the Indonesian authorities for permission to access the condition of around 193 Rohingya boat people rescued off Sabang Island near Aceh Province in January.
However, the Indonesia government did not respond to the letters of the UNHCR to access the condition of stranded Rohingya boat people, UNHCR's official Restu said.
Restu said, "We don't know their condition as the government did not allow us to see them."
