Dhaka: Bangladesh’s coast guard has rescued 382 starving Rohingya refugees who had been drifting at sea for weeks after failing to reach Malaysia, officials said Thursday.
The refugees, mostly women and children, were attempting to land on Bangladesh’s coast in the Teknaf area in Cox’s Bazar late Wednesday night, said Lt. Comm. M. Sohel Rana, local head of the coast guard.
Officials gave varying accounts of whether those rescued had been among the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who are living in refugee camps in Bangladesh after fleeing ethnic and religious violence in Myanmar.
Rana said the refugees started their journey for Malaysia about two months ago and had been drifting at sea for weeks.
“They failed to reach Malaysia and returned,” he said. (AP)
