The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has issued a call to action following Wednesday’s attack to Rohingya refugees by a mob in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
Hundreds of youths stormed into the basement of a building where dozens of Rohingya refugees were sheltering. The Rohingya, a mostly Muslim community fleeing persecution in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, with nearly a million living in camps in Bangladesh and over 1,000 arriving in Indonesia by boat in recent months, as explained in a statement by the organization.
ACNUR expressed deep disturbance at the mob attack on a site housing vulnerable refugee Rohingya families. Breaking through a police cordon, the mob forcibly loaded 137 refugees onto two trucks and relocated them within the city, leaving the refugees shocked and traumatized, according to the agency. ACNUR remains deeply concerned about the refugees’ safety and urges local law enforcement to take urgent measures to ensure the protection of all desperate individuals and humanitarian personnel.
The agency emphasized that the attack wasn’t an isolated incident but the result of a coordinated online campaign of misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech against refugees, aiming to discredit Indonesia’s efforts to save desperate lives at sea. Consequently, ACNUR called on the public to be aware of this coordinated and well-orchestrated online campaign across social media platforms, targeting authorities, local communities, refugees, and humanitarian workers alike, inciting hatred and endangering lives.
Moreover, they urged individuals to verify information shared online, much of which is “false or distorted, using AI-generated images and hate speech disseminated from bot accounts.”
The attack in Banda Aceh targeted a group of refugees seeking sanctuary, leading to their forcible relocation by the mob. ACNUR expressed deep concern for the refugees’ safety and well-being, highlighting the vulnerability of displaced individuals and the trauma caused by the incident.
ACNUR called upon local authorities to take urgent measures to ensure the protection of refugees and humanitarian workers. Additionally, they urged the public to exercise caution and critical thinking when encountering information online, citing the prevalence of misleading content and hate speech targeting refugees, often amplified by automated accounts.
