Good People Do Good Things
Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2020 4:27 pm
Indonesian villagers defy Covid-19 warnings to rescue Rohingya refugees
Governments across south-east Asia are turning away boats but in Aceh locals took matters into their own hands
Rebecca Ratcliffe and Febriana Firdaus
Fri 26 Jun 2020 17.22 BST
Last modified on Sat 27 Jun 2020 04.50 BST
On Thursday afternoon, residents of Aceh, Indonesia, waded back and forth in water helping Rohingya refugees clamber to safety. Exhausted children were passed between rescuers.
On Lancok beach, where survivors gathered, a man knelt with his head on the sand, thankful to be alive. Another embraced a member of the rescue team tightly.
Local people said they had felt compelled to act. A day earlier, fishermen had spotted a rickety boat packed with almost 100 Rohingya refugees, including dozens of children, stranded at sea.
Residents repeatedly urged the authorities to do something, but they were told the group could not be brought to shore because to do so would risk spreading coronavirus. Worried that people’s lives were in immediate danger, they took matters into their own hands and sailed out with ropes to tether the boat to safety.
“We didn’t worry about getting into problems [with the authorities] because we believe that what we did was the right thing,” said Nasruddin Guechik, who is head of the nearby village of Kampung. When people had seen the refugees, it had been impossible not to act, he said. “Just looking at the refugees, we were crying,”
A total of 94 refugees, including one pregnant woman, were saved. Amnesty International described the rescuers actions as “a moment of optimism and solidarity”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... a-refugees
Governments across south-east Asia are turning away boats but in Aceh locals took matters into their own hands
Rebecca Ratcliffe and Febriana Firdaus
Fri 26 Jun 2020 17.22 BST
Last modified on Sat 27 Jun 2020 04.50 BST
On Thursday afternoon, residents of Aceh, Indonesia, waded back and forth in water helping Rohingya refugees clamber to safety. Exhausted children were passed between rescuers.
On Lancok beach, where survivors gathered, a man knelt with his head on the sand, thankful to be alive. Another embraced a member of the rescue team tightly.
Local people said they had felt compelled to act. A day earlier, fishermen had spotted a rickety boat packed with almost 100 Rohingya refugees, including dozens of children, stranded at sea.
Residents repeatedly urged the authorities to do something, but they were told the group could not be brought to shore because to do so would risk spreading coronavirus. Worried that people’s lives were in immediate danger, they took matters into their own hands and sailed out with ropes to tether the boat to safety.
“We didn’t worry about getting into problems [with the authorities] because we believe that what we did was the right thing,” said Nasruddin Guechik, who is head of the nearby village of Kampung. When people had seen the refugees, it had been impossible not to act, he said. “Just looking at the refugees, we were crying,”
A total of 94 refugees, including one pregnant woman, were saved. Amnesty International described the rescuers actions as “a moment of optimism and solidarity”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... a-refugees