By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA
Indonesian fishermen scrambled Wednesday to rescue hundreds of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh from a sinking boat off the coast of northern Aceh province.
Khairul Noval, Search and Rescue Agency chief in Langsa city, told Anadolu Agency that 374 people -- including 44 women and 46 children – were left bobbing on the sea 40 miles off the coast after the vessel’s machinery stalled.
"They raised their hands and the fishermen approached them. Some of them jumped and swam to the fishermen's boats to ask for help," he said.
He described how five boats worked together to rescue the migrants – who said they had been stranded at sea with limited supplies for over a month – with three carrying them to shore while two tugged their broken boat.
An estimated 4,000 of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims, as well as other migrants from Bangladesh, are stranded with little access to food or water after Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand declared they would not allow migrant boats to land on their shores.
On Wednesday, however, Malaysia and Indonesia agreed to soften their stances over the crisis and offer immediate temporary shelter to migrants - providing the international community accepts responsibility for resettling them after one year.
Noval told Anadolu Agency, “their condition is very weak. It seems they haven’t eaten and drunk for days.”
Health officials have been busy treating the boat people, transferring around 29 of them to a nearby clinic.
The migrants are being accommodated at a complex of fisheries in Kuala Julok, East Aceh regency, where residents are visiting to provide clothes, food and money, according to Noval.
"We are collecting fish and rice from citizens to make food for them," he said, adding that some of the migrants had reportedly died at sea.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi told reporters Tuesday that more than 1,300 Rohingya have been accommodated in Indonesia since last week.
A toddler from Myanmar died of tetanus, Tribunnews.com reported Wednesday, after a Bangladeshi lost his life due to respiratory failure.
Fuad Basya, military spokesman, told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday that fishermen have been warned not to help migrants unless their boat is sinking or stuck at sea.
"Don't pick them up from outside of our maritime border so they can enter Indonesian territory," he said, adding that migrants were deliberately jumping into the sea to be rescued.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla, meanwhile, announced that Indonesia would accommodate the migrants and that the government had asked the army not to push them back.
"In the earlier policy, we refused them. But now we will not," Kompas.com quoted him as telling reporters, referring to the recent agreement with Malaysia.
Kalla said the influx would increase the economic and social burden, but Indonesia -- as a large country -- could not block the vulnerable people.
He had earlier met with Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah – requesting that the local government treat the migrants well – and UNHCR representative Thomas Vargas, who promised to help Indonesia deal with the issue.
Some of the migrants have fled Myanmar's western Rakhine state alleging brutality by the country’s military leaders, many have left refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox Bazar region, while others claim to have been forced onto the boats by people smugglers – ransoms then demanded from their families back home for their safe passage.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand agreed in a joint statement Wednesday to resolve the influx of irregular migrants in the spirit of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) solidarity. There was no mention, however, of Myanmar.
Since 2012, Rohingya -- who the United Nations consider to be the world’s most persecuted ethnic minority -- have been fleeing Myanmar in droves, in fear of violence that some human rights groups consider to be state-sponsored.
