'Mob Attack' by Indonesian Protesters forces Rohingya Muslim Families from Refugee Shelter

[bust]

Looks I a bunch of entitled young shits running riot. The Indonesians are a special bunch 🙄

Indonesian protesters stormed the refugee shelter calling for deportation of Rohingya.

 

A large crowd of Indonesian students has stormed a convention center housing more than 100 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in the city of Banda Aceh, demanding they be deported.

Reuters footage from the Wednesday protest showed the students, many wearing green jackets, run into the building's large basement space, where crowds of Rohingya men, women and children were seated on the floor and crying in fear.

The Rohingya were then led out, some carrying their belongings in plastic sacks, and taken to trucks as the protesters looked on.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said it in a statement it was "deeply disturbed to see a mob attack on a site sheltering vulnerable refugee families" and called for better protection.

"The mob broke a police cordon and forcibly put 137 refugees on two trucks, and moved them to another location in Banda Aceh. The incident has left refugees shocked and traumatized," it said.

 

The incident has left refugees shocked and traumatised. (Reuters: Riska Munawarah)

Misinformation, hate speech blamed

It said the attack was the result of a coordinated online campaign of misinformation and hate speech.

A city police spokesperson in Banda Aceh did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Rohingya Muslim refugees were forced onto trucks by the protesters. (Reuters: Riska Munawarah)

Rohingya refugees have experienced increasing hostility and rejection in Indonesia as locals grow frustrated at the number of boats carrying members of the ethnic minority, who face persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, arriving.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has blamed the recent surge in arrivals on human trafficking, and pledged to work with international organisations to offer temporary shelter.

 

The UNHCR say the attack was was fuelled by online misinformation and hate speech.(Reuters: Riska Munawarah)

Over 1,500 Rohingya have arrived in Indonesia since November, according to the UNHCR. 

Why these refugees made a dangerous boat trip

Khairul's family is among more than 1,000 Rohingya refugees who recently fled from a refugee camp in Bangladesh to another uncertain future in Indonesia.

Read more

Arrivals tend to spike between November and April, when the seas are calmer, with Rohingya taking boats to neighbouring Thailand and Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia.

Wariza Anis Munandar is a 23-year-old student from Banda Aceh and called for the deportation of the Rohingya at a protest rally on Wednesday, while another student, 20-year-old Della Masrida, said "they came here uninvited, they feel like it is their country."

Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees but has a history of taking in refugees if they arrive.

For years, Rohingya have fled Myanmar, where they are generally regarded as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship and subjected to abuse.

Reuters

[Mekong]

Ah, Islam that caring religion

[Coss]

What I find interesting is that misinformation and hate speech is once again being blamed, as though the people who made such claims and hateful speech were somehow not to blame.

Back in the day, you rounded up the people making the misinformation and hate speech and the problem was solved.

[bust]

46 minutes ago, Mekong said:

Ah, Islam that caring religion

The Sunnis and Shiites paid testament to that didn't they.