The 102 refugees, including 25 children, were transferred to the port of Trincomalee in eastern Sri Lanka.
More than 100 Rohingya refugees from war-torn Myanmar They were rescued while on a fishing vessel off the island in the Indian Ocean by the Sri Lankan Navy, and transported safely to port.
A Navy spokesman said on Friday that the 102 people, including 25 children, were transferred to the port of Trincomalee in eastern Sri Lanka.
The spokesman said: “Medical examinations must be conducted before they are allowed to disembark.”
The Muslim Rohingya minority is subjected to severe persecution in Myanmar, and thousands risk their lives every year on long sea journeys, the majority of whom head to the southeast of the country to Malaysia or Indonesia.
But fishermen discovered the fishing vessel drifting off the northern coast of Sri Lanka in Mullivakkal at dawn on Thursday.
A Navy spokesman said Friday that language difficulties made it difficult to understand where the refugees were headed, suggesting that “recent hurricane-force weather conditions” may have pushed them off course.
Although unusual, it is not the first boat to head to Sri Lanka, which lies about 1,750 kilometers (1,100 miles) across the open seas southwest of Myanmar.
In October, six people, nearly 100, died Rohingya They arrived by boat in Aceh province, Indonesia, in one of the latest waves of arrivals from Myanmar.
The Sri Lankan Navy rescued more than 100 Rohingya refugees in distress on a boat off their shores in December 2022.
In 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh during a military crackdown that is now the subject of a case before a UN genocide court.
Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup in 2021 and a grinding civil war has since forced millions to flee.
The Rohingya have I bore the brunt Because of the recent fighting because they were forcibly conscripted into the army despite not being recognized as citizens.
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