Sri Lanka’s navy rescues 102 Rohingya refugees found adrift aboard a fishing trawler

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s navy rescued more than 100 people believed to be Rohingya refugees who where found adrift aboard a fishing trawler off the island nation, a navy spokesman said Friday.

Navy spokesman Gayan Wickramasuriya said fishermen had spotted the refugees, including 25 children and 30 women, off Sri Lanka’s northern coast on Thursday. Navy vessels then escorted the trawler to naval base on Sri Lanka’s east coast where they were given medical care, food and water.

Wickramasuriya said the navy hasn’t yet confirmed whether the refugees are Rohingya because of communication difficulties. But the navy believes the group to be from Myanmar.

The rescue mirrored a similar incident in 2022 when the Sri Lankan navy picked up 100 Rohingya refugees who were also found adrift aboard a fishing boat inside Sri Lankan waters.

Hundreds of thousands of the predominantly Muslim Rohingya have fled Myanmar amid widespread discrimination. Most are denied citizenship.

About 1 million Rohingya live in Bangladesh as refugees. Most of them had fled a brutal counterinsurgency campaign in 2017 by Myanmar’s security forces, who were accused of committing mass rapes and killings.

Thousands have been trying to flee Bangladesh’s overcrowded camps to neighboring countries with Indonesia seeing a spike in refugee numbers since November which prompted it to call on the international community for help. Rohingya arriving in Aceh face some hostility from some fellow Muslims.

Returning safely to Myanmar is virtually impossible because the military that attacked them overthrew Myanmar’s democratically elected government in 2021. No country has offered them any large-scale resettlement opportunities.

Bharatha Mallawarachi, The Associated Press