Second group of Rohingya Muslims land on beach in Indonesia’s Aceh

Officials said that most of the people were dehydrated, fatigued and needed urgent medical treatment

A second group of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar reached Indonesia on Monday on a boat carrying hundreds of dehydrated and fatigued refugees after weeks at sea.

According to officials in Indonesia’s Aceh province, a boat washed ashore carrying 174 Rohingya Muslims.

Officials said that most of the people were dehydrated, fatigued and needed urgent medical treatment.

The group consisted of 83 men, 70 women and 32 children who were transferred by military trucks to a school just before midnight on Monday from a village hall where they previously received help from residents, health workers and others.

Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, which provides support to Rohingya groups said to Reuters that the boat was the same as one earlier reported missing and feared to have sunk.

The group is the second to arrive in Indonesia in two days.

On Sunday, a group of 58 Rohingya Muslim men were found on a beach in Aceh after weeks at sea.

Officials said the men were weak and hungry and arrived on Indra Patra beach at the Ladong fishing village in Aceh Besar district.

Last month two other boats carrying a total of 230 people landed in the country.

In a statement on Monday, the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) said that 2022 could be one of the deadliest years at sea in almost a decade for the persecuted group who fled Myanmar to refugee camps in Bangladesh.

More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from Buddhist-majority Myanmar to refugee camps in Bangladesh since 2017 as the Myanmar military launched a clearance operation in response to attacks by a rebel group.

Rights groups have estimated an increase in the number of people leaving camps in Bangladesh from about 500 last year to around 2,400 this year.

Earlier this month, 104 Rohingya were rescued by Sri Lanka’s navy.

Six others were saved by authorities in Thailand.

Last week Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, urged governments in south and southeast Asia “to immediately and urgently coordinate search and rescue for this boat and ensure safe disembarkation of those aboard before any further loss of life occurs”.

On Tuesday, a UN agency said that there are likely to be more Rohingya groups arriving in Indonesia.

(Additional reporting by agencies)