ROHINGYA refugees who have fled violence in Myanmar faced protests in Indonesia today. Around 200 students held a rally today in front of the parliament building in provincial capital Banda Aceh to demand that the government drive the refugees away. The students claimed that the presence of the Rohingya would bring social and economic upheaval to the community. Teuku Wariza, one of the protest organisers, said: “We urged the parliament speaker to immediately take a firm action to remove all Rohingya refugees from Aceh.”The protesters marched on a local community hall where about 135 Rohingya were sheltering and threw out clothes and household items belonging to the refugees, forcing authorities to relocate them. Today, police in Banda Aceh named two suspected human smugglers from Bangladesh and Myanmar following the arrival of one boat of refugees on December 10.
