500 Homeless Rohingya Refugees Rescue On Sea
African News, Latest Headlines Sunday, May 10th, 2015
About 500 members of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim community were rescued Sunday, in a boat, which had on board, mostly women and children and traveling off northern Indonesia.
The ill-fated boat landed in troubles when stranded in waters off Aceh province.
It would be recalled Myanmar, formerly referred to as Burma, declined the Rohingya as her citizens, a situation which subsequently prompted thousands of the tribal extraction to flee, so as to avoid persecution for some years back.
The ugly development is despite last December’s United Nations (UN) resolution, that Myanmar should give access to citizenship for the Rohingya, many of whom were considered vagabonds.
Rohingya refugees common escape route is jungle border with Thailand, while sea follows as next fleeing option.
Aceh provincial rescue chief Budiawan told AFP Sunday “We received a report from fishermen this morning that there were boat people stranded,”
The community leader indicated: “We despatched teams there and evacuated 469 migrants who are Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladesh. So far, all of them are safe,” he added.
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