Boat Carrying Rohingya Muslims Lands in Indonesia's Sumatra Island

Banda Aceh, MINA — A boat carrying 20 men believed to be Rohingya Muslims has landed on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, the latest in a growing wave attempting to flee persecution in Myanmar, VOA News reported.

Myanmar authorities have recently been stopping scores of boats filled with Rohingya migrants attempting to sail to Malaysia.

The detained Rohingyas were fleeing cramped refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh, where over 700,000 of them have been huddled after escaping a brutal military crackdown launched last year in Rakhine state. Myanmar considers the Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, and have denied them citizenship and other basic rights.

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The United Nations has accused Myanmar’s military of carrying out the crackdown with genocidal intent.

The latest crisis involving the Rohingyas has raised concerns of a repeat of 2015, when scores of Rohingyas were left stranded at sea after Thailand cracked down on regional human trafficking networks in 2015. (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)