In recent days, 140 Rohyingyan refugees have been stranded at sea off the coast of Indonesia for more than a week with the deaths of two and the evacuation of 11 passengers, including a pregnant woman, to a nearby hospital.

“According to information from residents, these people were stranded at around 4am [21:00 GMT],” Saiful Anwar, a village official in East Aceh, told the AFP news agency. In Indonesia, about 7,300 Rohingya refugees have arrived by boat since 2006, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

The Rohingya ethnic group, which is predominantly Muslim, is one of the world’s most persecuted. Over a million of them have been displaced from Myanmar as a result of the Rohingya Genocide in 2017 when they were compelled to leave their homes in search of safety, employment, and educational opportunities. As a result, thousands have left on perilous journeys for Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia on rickety boats to avoid facing persecution and massacre in Myanmar, having fled military crackdowns, and seeking shelter in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Residents of a town in Aceh Province had been helping the UN refugee agency supply the stranded group with food and water. Meanwhile, members of the town of Labuhan Haji reached an agreement with officials to allow the refugees to land for no more than a week beginning in October, according to Zumardi Chaidir, the chief of South Aceh’s search and rescue teams. Afterwards, Indonesian immigration officials will then decide where the refugees, predominantly women and children, will go, he said.

The stranded boat carrying about 210 people (at first) had to pay a sum of money to be taken to Malaysia. It departed Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, weeks ago before arriving at Indonesia on October 23. According to the police, however, approximately 50 passengers disembarked at some point during the journey and went to the Indonesian city of Pekanbaru, even though Malaysia was their final destination.

Moreover, three Acehnese citizens were arrested on suspicion of smuggling in connection with the boat, and eight other suspected smugglers were still at large, according to the police, who implied that the boat was largely connected to human trafficking.