Dozens Of Refugees Missing After Boat Sank Off Indonesian Coast

JAKARTA, Mac 23 (NNN-ANTARA) – Dozens of refugees reportedly went missing, after their boat carrying more than 100 people, sank off Indonesia’s western coast, this week, an official told local media.

Ibnu Harris Al Hussain, chief of Banda Aceh search and rescue agency of Indonesia’s Aceh province, told reporters that, a total of 75 refugees had been rescued, but dozens were still reportedly missing.

His agency, Hussain said, found and rescued 69 refugees around 22 km offshore on Thursday, while the other six were rescued by local fishermen a day earlier.

According to him, all refugees had been sent to the country’s immigration department and currently are taking shelters in the West Aceh regency.

Meanwhile, a protection associate for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Faisal Rahman, said that, he received information from a survivor saying that 142 people were reportedly on the boat.

– NNN-ANTARA