Almost 300 Rohingya asylum seekers believed to have been at sea for six months have reportedly landed in Aceh province, on the north-western tip of Indonesia's Sumatra Island.
The asylum seekers were reportedly part of a larger group that set sail from Bangladesh in March or AprilThe Red Cross hoped to have the rest relocated to an evacuation centre
Acehnese police said a wooden boat carrying the Rohingya was spotted by local fishermen several kilometres off the coast near Lhokseumawe before landing at the city's Ujung Blang Beach just after midnight on Monday . The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority from Myanmar who have been suffering persecution from the Myanmar Government in recent years.
There were 297 Rohingya on board the boat, including 181 women and 14 children, local police chief Iptu Irwansya told reporters."We hope they can be moved to the evacuation centre today, but their health, especially related to COVID-19, is our main concern," said Mr Yahya.An unwell 13-year-old was taken to hospital in an ambulance, police said.
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.Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar amid what the
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