The 102 refugees, together with 25 youngsters, have been taken to Sri Lanka’s jap port of Trincomalee.
Greater than 100 Rohingya refugees from war-torn Myanmar have been rescued whereas adrift on a fishing trawler off the Indian Ocean island nation by Sri Lanka’s navy, bringing them safely to port.
The 102 individuals, together with 25 youngsters, have been taken to Sri Lanka’s jap port of Trincomalee, a navy spokesman stated on Friday.
“Medical checks need to be performed earlier than they’re allowed to disembark,” the spokesman stated.
The Muslim-majority ethnic Rohingya are closely persecuted in Myanmar and 1000’s danger their lives every year on lengthy sea journeys, the bulk heading southeast to Malaysia or Indonesia.
However fisherman noticed the drifting trawler off Sri Lanka’s northern coast at Mullivaikkal at daybreak on Thursday.
The navy spokesman stated on Friday that language difficulties had made it laborious to grasp the place the refugees had been headed, suggesting that “latest cyclonic climate” could have pushed them off track.
Whereas uncommon, it’s not the primary boat to move to Sri Lanka, which is about 1,750km (1,100 miles) throughout open seas southwest of Myanmar.
In October, six individuals died as almost 100 Rohingya landed by boat in Indonesia’s Aceh province in one of many newest waves of arrivals from Myanmar.
The Sri Lankan navy rescued greater than 100 Rohingya refugees in misery on a ship off their shores in December 2022.
In 2017, tons of of 1000’s of Rohingya fled Myanmar for neighbouring Bangladesh throughout a crackdown by the army that’s now the topic of a United Nations genocide court docket case.
Myanmar’s army seized energy in a 2021 coup and a grinding civil struggle since then has pressured tens of millions to flee.
The Rohingya have borne the brunt of the most recent preventing as a result of they’ve been forcibly drafted into the military regardless of not being recognised as residents.
