33 Malaysia-bound Rohingyas rescued from sea

Members of coast guard yesterday rescued 33 Rohingyas and detained six alleged human traffickers from a Malaysia-bound fishing trawler in the Bay of Bengal.

Among the rescued, 14 are men, 10 women and nine children who are the Rohingya refuges from different camps of Ukhia and Teknaf, said Lt Fayezul Islam Mondol, station commander of the coast guard in Taknaf.

The coast guard members rescued the men near Saint Martin's Island in the southeastern part of the Bay around 4:30pm, the coast guard official said.

Acting on a tip-off, the coast guard conducted a drive in the sea and chased down the trawler, he said.

A total of 47 Rohingya refugees were rescued in last two days.

Some 720,000 refugees of the persecuted Myanmar minority have taken shelter in Bangladesh camps since August last year.

They fled what the UN has described as ethnic cleansing in Buddhist-majority Myanmar's western Rakhine state, and have joined some 300,000 refugees already living in camps in Cox's Bazar.

People smugglers in recent years have sent tens of thousands of Rohingyas from the Bangladesh camps to Malaysia, before Bangladesh launched a crackdown in 2015 after Thai authorities discovered mass graves and boats overcrowded with thousands of migrants drifted at sea, reports AFP.

Source: thedailystar