374 Rohingya Children In Aceh Without Parents: Official

Langsa, Aceh, June 3 (Antara) -- The UNHCR has revealed that 374 children of the 1,001 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, who have been accommodated in several camps in Aceh province, are without parents, an official said. "What we found is quite worrying because the children are not accompanied by their parents. It is our priority to take care of them," Jeffrey Savage, a senior official of protection affairs of the UNHCR, stated here on Wednesday, adding that some 700 boat people in the region are Bangladeshis. However, all these 700 boat people are men who are categorized as job seekers, not asylum seekers. Therefore, they will be sent home immediately as they face no problems in their country. Based on the search conducted by the UNHCR, he added, the majority of these children are victims of kidnapping by a group of traffickers. When the refugees were found by some local fishermen, they were suffering from severe dehydration and starvation as they had been floating aboard the barge for days before being rescued, Savage, who is from the United States, remarked. In addition, personnel of the Indonesian military and police, as well as rescue workers and volunteers from the Indonesian Red Cross and several civilian agencies, worked together to assist the refugees.