A man named Muhammad Amin (MA) was named a suspect by the Banda Aceh Police for being involved in smuggling Rohingya refugees to Indonesia.
The police named MA as a suspect after carrying out an investigation regarding the arrival of a ship carrying 137 Rohingya ethnic people on December 10 2023.
The ship arrived at the coast of Blang Ulam Hamlet Beach, Lameh Village, Mesjid Raya District, Aceh Besar Regency, Aceh Province.
Hundreds of refugees are temporarily housed at Balai Meuseraya Aceh (BMA) Banda Aceh.
Banda Aceh Police Chief, Police Commissioner Fahmi Irwan Ramli said that every Rohingya citizen who wants to leave the camp in Bangladesh and sail to Indonesia will be charged a fee.
The costs are also not small, each resident spends 100,000-120,000 Taka or approximately Rp. 14-16 million per person.
The money was handed over to MA, who later discovered that he was an ethnic Rohingya.
“In general, each Rohingya citizen deposits 100,000-120,000 Taka or Rp. 14-16 million per person,” said Fahmi, Monday (18/12/2023).
Then, MA also acted as captain or ship carrier for the Rohingya group to Indonesia.
The ships used to sail to Indonesia were also purchased from money collected from passengers.
“The ship is not free. The ship was purchased for 2 million Taka or IDR 280 million. “The money was obtained from Rohingya residents who were going to sail to Indonesia,” he stressed.
Initially, MA was suspected because after the group arrived in Blang Ulam, he and one of the Rohingya residents with the initials AH immediately separated themselves from the group.
Then, they were both arrested and handed over to the police. From there, the police carried out an investigation so that it was discovered that MA was involved in the human smuggling case. After further investigation, it turns out that MA was also a refugee in Aceh in 2022.
In fact, he once ran away from the holding camp to Riau and finally to Malaysia to look for work.
So, the smuggling action carried out by MA was apparently based on his own experience. From this experience, MA is also a Rohingya refugee who can speak Malay.
Currently, the police are investigating the smuggling case carried out by MA. The police are also looking to find out whether there are Indonesian citizens (WNI) involved in this case.
As a result of his actions, MA was named a suspect in the criminal act of human smuggling which was alleged under Article 120 paragraph (1) of Law no. 6 of 2011 concerning Immigration.
The threat is a minimum sentence of 5 years and a maximum of 15 years and a fine of at least Rp. 500,000,000.00 and a maximum of Rp. 1,500,000,000.