JAKARTA/NEW DELHI: Activists on Saturday called on the Indonesian government to rescue hundreds of Rohingya refugees who have been stranded on boats in the Indian Ocean for weeks.

Two boats carrying refugees, including women and children, entered Indonesian waters near the northern province of Aceh on Friday evening, Amnesty International said, urging the government to allow them to disembark safely.

“The information says there were children who were taken to both boats. No rescue effort was made until midday Saturday. An evacuee from one of the ships is believed to have starved to death,” the group said in a statement.

“In Indonesia, Australia and many people around the world are ready to celebrate Christmas. The humanitarian spirit of Christmas must triumph at a time like this…we implore the Indonesian government to save the ships and let them land in completely safe.

Two of the five boats reportedly attempted to cross the Andaman Sea from the shores of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh’s largest Rohingya refugee camp, to another host country in late November.

In early December, 154 evacuees on one of the boats were rescued by the Vietnam Shipping Company and handed over to the Myanmar Navy, while 104 people on the other boat were rescued by the Sri Lankan Navy on December 18 .

The UN refugee agency on Saturday cited unconfirmed reports that at least 20 people died in one of the missing boats as it urged countries in the region to “help save lives”.

Mohammad Rezuan Khan, a Rohingya activist from Cox’s Bazar, said in a broadcast message to reporters that his sister and nephew were on one of the boats near Indonesian waters, which had been “towed into Indonesian waters by the navy Indian”.

“We are asking the Indonesian government to immediately allow them to disembark,” Khan told Arab News.

“It is very important to know what land they reach and what land they land on, because they have been at sea for almost a month, so the situation is very bad at the moment.”

He said there were 160 people on board and the ship had been floundering off the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and India since early December after its engine failed.

As calls for help grow increasingly desperate, campaigners say South Asian countries have yet to send official aid or give any indication they want it.

Visnu Pramandita, spokesman for the Indonesian Maritime Safety Agency, told Arab News that authorities have yet to find the vessel in the country’s waters.

Reza Maulana of Geutanyoe, an Aceh-based humanitarian organization that works with Rohingya refugees in Indonesia, said technical or political issues should not be used as arguments to avoid humanitarian action.

“It’s beyond any technology,” he said. “Rescuing refugees in danger is very important no matter what.”

Priyali Sur, founder of the Chennai-based Azadi Project which supports refugees, said she found a photo of a boy who allegedly drowned with his family in one of the boats.

“All these countries are dying at sea, leaving entire populations to fend for themselves,” Sur said.

Arab News could not immediately verify photos or reports of the sinking.

In 2017, more than 730,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh following a brutal crackdown by Myanmar’s military, which the United Nations has called a genocide.

In the squalid and overcrowded camps of Cox’s Bazar, Rohingya refugees face increasingly complex uncertainties, driving them to undertake perilous journeys in hope of a better life.

“I think there needs to be global awareness about what we can do in terms of resettling these communities,” Chur said.

“When Ukrainian refugees started arriving, many countries accepted them openly. Why not the Rohingyas?