Roundup: Indonesia continues providing assistance for refugees stranded in Aceh

Indonesia has continued providing assistance for more than a thousand of Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees who were saved from the sea by Acehnese fishermen after they were expelled from entering Malaysian and Thailand authorities.

Indonesian social ministry has prepared packages of aids for the refugees who were now sheltered in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh, waiting for further clearance from the foreign affairs ministry.

Indonesia's Social Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa said that deployment of aid packages from her ministry followed data collected by the ministry's volunteers to the camp that housed the refugees in North Aceh district.

The minister said on Monday that the aid packages that the ministry has prepared for the refugees who fled from their conflict-ridden home countries among others were rice, children cloths, sanitary packages, food and mattresses.

"Besides expecting clearance from the foreign affairs ministry, we also coordinate with the National Disaster Mitigation Agency ( BNPB) for the technical operation in the field. The coordination with related agencies was necessary as the activities require funds from state budget," Khofifah said in a statement.

Further data collection and activities to treat the ill refugees were conducted in North Aceh facilities, jointly carried out by Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry, United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Indonesia has pledged to provide help for the refugees as the nation adheres to the non-refoulement principle, even it did not sign the 1951 International Convention on Refugee Status.

The non-refoulement principle forbids a nation to reject and send refugees or asylum seekers to free territory but their lives were threatened by race, religious or nationalities issues.

Acehnese fishermen saved more than 500 refugees from Myanmar's Muslim ethnic of Rohingya on Sunday last week after the refugees' stricken boat was found stranded in Aceh waters.

Another rickety boat packed by more than 700 Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees was saved by Acehnese fishermen on Friday last week. The boat was intercepted by Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesian navy from entering those nation's territories.

Reports said that foreign affairs ministers from Indonesia and Malaysia held a regional meeting with the United Nations (UN) representatives in Malaysia's city of Kinabalu on Monday to discuss wave of Rohingya refugees afloat in Southeast Asian waters. The meeting would be separately continued between Malaysia and Thailand foreign ministers to address this issue.

UN estimated that thousands of refugees were still drifted at sea after being deceived and abandoned by traffickers who initially facilitated their trip to flee out of their countries.

UNHCR Indonesia Spokesperson Mitra Salima said that the UNHCR has called Asia Pacific countries to send their Search and Rescue (SAR) teams to assure the refugees' safety by seeking and saving them from the open sea.

"This is to save the lives of those who are now still afloat and drifted helplessly in the middle of the sea," Mitra said on Monday as quoted by a local media.

Mitra said that as of now there has been no coordinated effort from the SAR teams to address the refugee issue.

According to the data released by UNHCR, more than 25,000 people from Rohingya ethnic have fled from Myanmar in the last three months, or double from that of in the same period last year. Endi