Hundreds of Rohingya refugees reach western Indonesia by boat

BIREUEUN, Indonesia, Nov 16: A boat carrying 250 Rohingya refugees landed in Indonesia from Bangladesh on Thursday, a local official told AFP, bringing the number of such arrivals over the past week to nearly 600.

The mostly Muslim Rohingya are heavily persecuted in Myanmar and thousands risk their lives each year on long and expensive sea journeys, often in flimsy boats, to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.