Nearly 200 people arrive to Indonesia after drifting at sea for weeks

A boat carrying 185 refugees reached Indonesia’s northwest province of Aceh on December 26, 2022 after reportedly drifting at sea for weeks. This was the second boat arriving at the Southeast Asian country in two days. The Rohingya Muslim minority ethnic group has faced persecution at home in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar, and almost 1 million of them have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since 2017. But camps there have become overcrowded, so more are taking risky sea journeys to escape again to countries like Indonesia.