Mon 19 December 2022:
As members of the Muslim minority continue to flee the violence in Myanmar and the hardships in the refugee camps in Bangladesh, the Sri Lankan navy has rescued 104 Rohingya who were at sea off the Indian Ocean island nation’s northern coast, an official said on Monday.
Every year, many Rohingya put their lives in danger by sailing to Southeast Asian nations like Malaysia on flimsy boats. Their numbers have increased as a result of the camps’ deteriorating condition and Myanmar’s military coup last year.
A boat was first spotted by local fishermen, who informed the navy, which launched a search and rescue operation and eventually towed the vessel to a northern harbour on Sunday night, a Sri Lanka Navy spokesperson, Captain Gayan Wickramasuriya, said.
“They will be handed over to the police today,” Wickramasuriya told Reuters. “This is not a criminal action so we will see how to proceed.”
Of the group – which includes women and minors – an 80-year old man, one mother and her two children were admitted to hospital for minor sickness, Wickramasuriya said.
The origin and the intended destination of the Rohingya group were unclear.
More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar in 2017, many to the neighboring country of Bangladesh, after a military crackdown that witnesses claimed included mass executions and rape.
Villages have been burned and citizens have been killed, according to rights groups and the media.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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