Police in the city of Medan on Sumatra island were tipped off to the group by suspicious residents who lived nearby. When police raided the shop house on Tuesday they found some 192 men, mostly in their twenties, occupying the two-storey building with many complaining about lack of food, authorities said. In recent years, Indonesia has seen hundreds of asylum seekers - mostly Afghans and minority Rohingya from Myanmar - arrive in the northern part of Sumatra. In 2015, hundreds of Muslim Rohingya arrived ashore in Aceh, where they were welcomed in the staunchly conservative Islamic province. Indonesia has not ratified the UN convention on refugees and asylum seekers are usually not allowed to work in the country.

Source: Dhaka Tribune February 06, 2019 09:56 UTC