The campaign against the Rohingya refugees in Indonesia intensified on 27th December when a large number of protesters charged a temporary refugee facility in the Aceh state and pressed for their deportation. A video showed the students, many of whom were sporting the insignias of various universities, running into the building’s basement where large numbers of refugees from the Rohingya ethnic group were present.
The demonstrators were shouting slogans such as “kick them out” and “reject Rohingya in Aceh.” After being driven out of there, 137 refugees were loaded onto two trucks and transported to a new location.
A large crowd of Indonesian students stormed a convention centre housing hundreds of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in the city of Banda Aceh, demanding they be deported!
— Shan Kamaraj (@skamaraj32) December 27, 2023
📹Reuters pic.twitter.com/w26ZIA50rT
The incident was denounced by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC) which stated, “Deeply disturbed to see a mob attack on a site sheltering vulnerable refugee families.”
“Hundreds of youngsters stormed a building basement on Wednesday where refugees were sheltered. The mob broke a police cordon and forcibly put 137 refugees on two trucks, and moved them to another location in Banda Aceh. The incident has left refugees shocked and traumatized,” alleged the refugee agency.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo of Indonesia has attributed the current increase in immigration to human trafficking. He confirmed that the interests of the local population would take precedence over those of the refugees and that the government would offer them temporary humanitarian support.
The people of Aceh became irate when hundreds of Rohingya started to arrive on the province’s coast in boats starting mid-November. They first rejected a vessel and then demanded that the migrants be turned back. Some villagers mentioned they had bad encounters with the Rohingya who had arrived earlier and were “troublesome” while others disclosed that supplies were already scarce for the locals.
Subsequently, little demonstrations arose to internet campaigns against the Rohingya in which Indonesians advocated their deportation and accused the refugees of being colonizers, according to recent statements from officials.
