Sri Lanka Navy rescues more than 100 Rohingya stranded in the Indian Ocean. rohingya news

102 refugees, including 25 children, were evacuated to Trincomalee, Sri Lanka’s eastern port.

More than 100 Rohingya refugees from war-torn Myanmar have been rescued by the Sri Lankan Navy while adrift on a fishing trawler off the Indian Ocean island nation, and brought to safe port.

A navy spokesman said on Friday that 102 people, including 25 children, were taken to Sri Lanka’s eastern port of Trincomalee.

“They will have to undergo a medical examination before they are allowed to land,” the spokesperson said.

The Muslim-majority ethnic Rohingya face severe persecution in Myanmar and thousands risk their lives each year on the long sea journey, most heading south-east to Malaysia or Indonesia.

But fishermen spotted the trawler drifting off Mullivaikkal off Sri Lanka’s northern coast on Thursday morning.

A Navy spokesman said Friday that language difficulties had made it difficult to understand where the refugees were headed, suggesting that “recent cyclonic weather” may have thrown them off course.

While unusual, it is not the first boat to sail towards Sri Lanka, which is about 1,750 km (1,100 mi) away in the open ocean south-west of Myanmar.

In October, about 100 Rohingya landed by boat in Indonesia’s Aceh province in one of the latest waves of arrivals from Myanmar, killing six.

The Sri Lankan Navy rescued more than 100 Rohingya refugees in distress on a boat off its shores in December 2022.

In 2017, thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar for neighboring Bangladesh during a military crackdown, which is now the subject of a UN genocide court case.

Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup in 2021, and the ongoing civil war since then has forced millions to flee.

The Rohingya have borne the brunt of the latest fighting as they have been forcibly conscripted into the military despite not being recognized as citizens.