Sri Lanka’s navy says it has rescued 102 people who find themselves believed to be Rohingya refugees from a fishing trawler which was adrift within the Indian Ocean for days.

Navy spokesman Gayan Wickramasuriya stated fishermen noticed the boat off Sri Lanka’s northern coast on Thursday and raised alarm to authorities who then rescued the folks on board.

Passengers included 25 youngsters and 30 ladies, with these on board all escorted from the trawler to a naval base on Sri Lanka’s east coast the place they got medical care, meals and water.

Movies shared on social media present a picket fishing trawler filled with youngsters, ladies and males being approached by a speedboat.

These on board appeared frail after days spent at sea, mendacity on the deck of the vessel with some hiding beneath umbrellas to guard themselves from the solar.

The navy is but to verify the identities of refugees as a consequence of communication difficulties however believes they’re Rohingya who might need been travelling from Myanmar.

A whole bunch of hundreds of Rohingyas, a Muslim minority group, have fled Myanmar lately to flee a brutal crackdown by Myanmar’s army. The United Nations has described the situations in Myanmar as a ”textbook instance of ethnic cleaning”.

The boat ran out of meals and water earlier than it got here close to to the shore in Mullaitivu District, on the north-eastern coast of Sri Lanka’s northernmost province.

The police stated they had been investigating the circumstances of the arrival of the boat and assessing the situation of the folks on the vessel.

Round a million Rohingya Muslims live in overcrowded refugee camps in southern Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar. Most of them fled a brutal counterinsurgency marketing campaign in 2017 by Myanmar’s safety forces, who had been accused of committing mass rapes and killings.

Extra have crossed the border on foot or via sea routes after the army junta overthrew Myanmar’s democratically elected authorities in 2021.

Neighbouring Indonesia, which says it has witnessed a spike in refugee arrivals since November, has referred to as on the worldwide group for assist.

In October, a picket boat with 140 Rohingya Muslims, largely ladies and youngsters, anchored about 1 mile (0.60km) off the coast of Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh. Three of the Rohingya on board died through the practically two-week-long journey from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh to the waters off Labuhan Haji in South Aceh district, native police stated.