Since November, more than 1,500 refugees have arrived in the Indonesian province of Aceh, causing anger among locals.

Over 300 Rohingya refugees have arrived on the coast of Indonesia’s Aceh province after weeks of drifting across the sea from Bangladesh.

The emaciated survivors – children, women and men – said they were running out of supplies and fearing death at sea when they landed on the inhospitable shores of the villages of Pidie and Aceh Besar in the early hours of Sunday morning.

“The boat sunk. We had no food or water,” said Shahidul Islam, a 34-year-old survivor, saying he had set out from a refugee camp in Bangladesh.

A group of 180 refugees arrived by boat at a beach in Pidie district of Aceh province at 3 a.m. local time (8:00 p.m. GMT on Saturday).

The second boat carrying 135 refugees landed hours later in neighboring Aceh Besar regency after being adrift at sea for more than a month, while a third boat remains missing.

“We just want to find a safe place,” one refugee at a coastal shelter told Al Jazeera. “We knew we could die at sea, but we are finally safe. That’s all we want for our children.”

On Sunday evening, Acting Regent of Aceh Besar Muhammad Iswanto said the refugees had been moved to temporary accommodation during a visit by a United Nations representative.

“They will be relocated to the campsite by the province [refugee] Task force. They will join other Rohingya refugees who were there,” the official said.

Forbidding shores

Nearly a million Rohingya are living in refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar near the border with Myanmar, most after fleeing a military-led crackdown suspected acts of genocide in Myanmar in 2017.

Thousands of them risk their lives every year on long and expensive sea voyages, often in flimsy boats, departing from Bangladesh to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.

But the mainly Muslim minority who fled Myanmar after persecution have not found refuge in these communities, whereas villagers have tried Push refugee boats back into the sea.

While the people of Aceh in Indonesia had done so previously admitted refugeesTensions escalated as the number of arrivals increased.

Over 1,500 Rohingya have arrived in Indonesia since last month after a dangerous journey across the sea.

Aceh residents say they will not provide money, supplies or shelter to the arriving Rohingya and do not want them to stay in the area.

The local government in Pidie had previously said it would not take responsibility for providing refugees with tents or other basic needs, nor would it “bear any costs.”

“You can’t stay here.”

Rijalul Fitri, head of Blang Raya village in Aceh, said on Sunday that they do not want the refugees in their village. “We stayed up all night trying not to let them dock, but… they arrived,” he said.

Fitri insisted that the refugees had to be resettled. “You can’t stay here,” he said.

Over 100 protesters clashed with police on Sabang Island in Aceh, where there is an emergency shelter, as they demanded the resettlement of Rohingya refugees.

“It’s one boat after another,” one woman told Al Jazeera.

“We are poor people, why don’t they use the money to help us? Why are they giving them food?” she said, referring to volunteers who distributed food and water to the refugees.

“We reject the Rohingya,” said another protester. “We want them moved as quickly as possible. We don’t want to get infected with the diseases they carry,” he said.

The U.N. refugee agency’s protection officer, Faisal Rahman, said the organization had tried to reassure local communities.

“We continue to explain the situation to people and ensure that they are not burdened with caring for the refugees,” he said, acknowledging that the designated shelters were overcapacity.

But “the government is working to provide shelter as the number of refugees arriving is very high,” Rahman said.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said Friday that temporary assistance would be provided to the refugees “with the interests of the local community taking precedence.”

The Indonesian government says it is looking for a new location to house the refugees and has noted resistance from residents in its aim to find a sustainable solution, Al Jazeera correspondent Jessica Washington reported from Jakarta.

The UN says so difficult conditions and increase in crime in Bangladesh as well as the deterioration Crisis in Myanmar is the reason for the increase in the flow of refugees. Experts believe more boats could arrive in the coming months.

“Around 75 percent of new arrivals are women and children,” Emily Bojovic from the UN refugee agency’s Southeast Asia office told Al Jazeera.