COLOMBO Sri Lanka ’s navy said on Dec. 19 it was heading to aid a group of around 100 Rohingya refugees from war-torn Myanmar adrift in a fishing trawler off the Indian Ocean island. The mostly Muslim ethnic Rohingya are heavily persecuted in Myanmar and thousands risk their lives each year on long sea journeys, the majority heading southeast to Malaysia or Indonesia. But fisherman spotted the drifting trawler off Sri Lanka’s northern coast at Mullivaikkal at dawn on Dec. 19, the navy said.

Tag-uri: SRI