BOARDING SCHOOL TO ACCOMODATE CHILDREN OF ROHINGYA REFUGEES: MINISTER

Wonosobo, E Java, May 27 (Antara) - A boarding school will accommodate the children of Rohingya refugees who were abandoned by their parents, Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin stated. "The boarding school is ready to accommodate the children of Rohingya refugees who are separated from or abandoned by their parents," Saifuddin noted here on Wednesday. Saifuddin pointed out that several children had lost their parents while adrift at sea on boats with little food or water. "We will educate the orphans in the boarding school as education is their right. The adults will be handled in a different manner," he noted. Saifuddin remarked that the Indonesian government is concerned about the Rohingya refugees. Based on the president's policy, he remarked that the government is ready to assist the Rohingya refugees on humanitarian grounds. "With the assistance of other countries and the United Nations, Indonesia will solve the problems of the Rohingya refugees. "We should help them, and it has been done in Aceh. We have provided shelters to them," he stated. Earlier, the United States expressed readiness to assist Indonesia, through the United Nations (UN), to handle the Southeast Asian refugee crisis, the United States Ambassador to Indonesia Robert O. Blake stated. "If the UN agency in charge of refugee crises requests assistance from us, then the United States will assist the agency happily," Blake noted. With regard to such a crisis, the ambassador remarked that the United States can provide humanitarian assistance soon. Blake lauded Indonesia's efforts in dealing with the Rohingya asylum seekers currently stranded in Indonesia. "I welcome the initiative to independently search and rescue Rohingya asylum seekers adrift at sea," he pointed out. In addition, member of the Presidential Advisory Council Hasyim Muzadi had urged the government to discuss the fate of Rohingya asylum seekers currently stranded in Indonesia with Myanmar. "The most important step is to help them first, for humanitarian sake. We agree to allocate funds from the state budget to the concerned institutions. So, firstly, we should accommodate them and then conduct diplomacy with Myanmar," he remarked on Monday. "Tell them, hai Myanmar, many of your citizens are now in Indonesia," the former chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama, affirmed.