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Rohingya refugees who recently arrived in Indonesia carried with them little more than gruesome descriptions of 200 days of capture, beating and torture at sea.
Cameroon Nahar says that after a while he lost count of how many dead were thrown overboard. Nahar is among several hundred Rohingya now recounting what they experienced when they set out from Bangladesh in March.
She says mothers and children lost their lives when the disease spread on the ship.
– The suffering was terrible. The crew tortured us, beat us and cut us up, a survivor tells the AFP news agency.
– We were told that we would arrive in Malaysia within seven to eight days. Instead, we float around the sea for months, he says.
On September 7, they arrived in the Indonesian province of Aceh.
Rescue demanded
Many of the Rohingya had paid up to $ 2,400, more than 20,000 crowns, for a place on the ship. But in an effort to pressure family and friends for more money, many were held hostage for months on the high seas in Southeast Asia.
– Human traffickers are said to have demanded up to 5,000 ringgit, more than 10,000 crowns, reports the Institute for Conflict Policy Analysis (IPAC) in Jakarta in a report.
According to the report, the smugglers used smaller boats to bring food and water aboard the ship. Survivors say they sometimes only received a handful of rice and a glass of water a day.
Those who have arrived in Indonesia probably have relatives who have paid the ransom. Several of the women on the ship are said to have married men in Malaysia, who are believed to have financed the trip.
The Indonesian police, army and Red Cross welcomed hundreds of Rohingya refugees. Human traffickers are exploiting the Rohingya’s desire to escape refugee camps in Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands have stayed since fleeing persecution and violence in Myanmar.
Photo: Rahmat Mirza (AP)
Several hundred died
According to the latest descriptions of the survivors, it is possible that up to 100 people have lost their lives. The exact number is unknown, but it matches the calculations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR. They estimate that hundreds of Rohingya may have died at sea this year.
In recent years, the Rohingya Muslim population has lived in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh. Since 2016, hundreds of thousands have fled Myanmar, where they have been subjected to systematic violence and repression by the country’s security forces and the majority Buddhist population.
In recent years, many have attempted to disembark with a Muslim majority, such as Malaysia and Indonesia.
“We had pain in Myanmar and we couldn’t find peace,” said Mahmud Syakir, who left the Bangladesh refugee camp in an attempt to reunite with his sister in Malaysia.
– I’m poor and an orphan. I only have one sister, but I don’t have the opportunity to communicate with her, she says.
(© NTB)
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