MEULABOH
\nA boat carrying more than 100 Rohingya refugees and a fishing vessel trying to help them capsized in waters off Indonesia on Wednesday, with six rescued and some carried away by currents, local fishermen said.
\nThe mostly Muslim Rohingya are heavily persecuted in Myanmar, and thousands risk their lives each year on long and expensive sea journeys, often in flimsy boats, to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.
\n\u201cWe received a report from fishermen in West Aceh that a boat carrying Rohingya refugees capsized in the sea near Meulaboh. A fisherman saw the Rohingyas at 8:00 am (0100 GMT) with their boat sinking,\u201d Nanda Ferdiansyah from West Aceh traditional fishing community told AFP.
\n\u201cAs soon as the fisherman\u2019s boat approached them, they all got on the boat. As soon as they got onboard, the fisherman\u2019s boat also sank because of overcapacity.\u201d
\nThe Rohingya boat had capsized off Kuala Bubon beach in West Aceh, the regency\u2019s fishing community secretary-general Pawang Amiruddin said in a statement.
\n\u201cThe report from local fishermen said a Rohingya boat capsized and they saved themselves by getting onto the hull of the overturned boat. Some other people were carried away by the strong currents,\u201d the statement said.
\n\u201cSo far six people have been rescued by the local fisherman, four women and two men.\u201d The local search and rescue agency said the Rohingya boat was spotted capsized 16 nautical miles (30 kilometers) off the coast.
\nAmiruddin told AFP by phone that survivors estimated there were \u201caround 150 people on the boat… but we don\u2019t know for sure\u201d with only half a dozen confirmed to have made it to land. The refugees said they were from Myanmar and had tried to reach Thailand but turned to Indonesia\u2019s western Aceh province after being rejected, Amiruddin said.
\nHe did not say if those carried away were feared to have died.
\nThe United Nations refugee agency said it was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d about the incident, saying \u201ctens of Rohingya refugees\u201d were in desperate need of rescue but could not confirm exact numbers.
\n\u201cWe hope that search and rescue could be performed and the refugees can be brought to land as soon as possible. This is an emergency,\u201d UNHCR said in a statement.
\nThe search and rescue agency said a team departed provincial capital Banda Aceh by boat on Wednesday evening and would reach the area of the capsizings at 12:45 am Thursday (1745 GMT Wednesday). \u201cAt 6:45 pm, a search and rescue team departed from Banda Aceh to the location using a boat to conduct an evacuation,\u201d it said in a statement.
\nLocal police and the regional government did not respond to requests for comment.
\nThe incident comes after months of Rohingya arrivals on Indonesian shores.
\nFrom mid-November to late January, 1,752 refugees \u2014 mostly women and children \u2014 landed in the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra, according to UNHCR.
\nThe agency said it was the biggest influx into the Muslim-majority country since 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MEULABOH A boat carrying more than 100 Rohingya refugees and a fishing vessel trying to help them capsized in waters off Indonesia on Wednesday, with six rescued and some carried away by currents, local fishermen said. The mostly Muslim Rohingya are heavily persecuted in Myanmar, and thousands risk their lives each year on long and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-395238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n