Sri Lanka Navy rescued more than 100 Rohingya from the sea in the Indian Ocean | Rohingya news

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

More than 100 Rohingya refugees from war-torn Myanmar have been rescued from a fishing boat off an Indian Ocean island by the Sri Lankan navy, bringing them safely to port.

The 102 people, including 25 children, were taken to the eastern port of Sri Lanka, Trincomalee, a navy spokesman said on Friday.

“There must be a medical check before they are allowed to disembark,” said the spokesperson.

The mostly Muslim Rohingya are severely persecuted in Myanmar and thousands risk their lives each year on the long sea journey, most heading southeast to Malaysia or Indonesia.

But a fisherman spotted a trawler pulling off the northern coast of Sri Lanka at Mullivaikkal on Thursday morning.

A navy spokesman said on Friday that language difficulties made it difficult to understand where the refugees were headed, adding that “hot weather” may have caused them to stray.

Although unusual, it is not the first boat to go to Sri Lanka, which is about 1,750 kilometers (1,100 miles) of open sea southwest of Myanmar.

In October, six people died as about 100 Rohingya arrived by boat in the Indonesian province of Aceh in one of the latest waves of arrivals from Myanmar.

The Sri Lankan navy rescued more than 100 Rohingya refugees in distress from a boat off their coast in December 2022.

In 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh during a military offensive that is now a genocide case at the United Nations.

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

The Rohingya have suffered the most in recent wars because they were forcibly conscripted into the war even though they are not recognized as citizens.