400 Rohingya Refugees Stranded at Sea, UN Calls for Urgent Rescue

Two boats adrift for weeks in the Andaman Sea, running out of food and water, as regional governments urged to act.

About 400 Rohingya Muslims are stranded at sea in the Andaman Sea on two boats that have been adrift for at least two weeks, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The UNHCR has called for urgent action by regional governments to locate and rescue the stranded passengers, warning of a significant risk of fatalities if people are not rescued and disembarked to safety soon.
One of the boats has been confirmed to have engine failure, and both are reportedly out of food and water.
The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, have been systematically discriminated against by authorities for decades, with hundreds of thousands fleeing amid renewed persecution in 2017.
Despite international calls for acceptance, boats with Rohingya refugees are often turned away by local communities or authorities, with some warning that inaction from regional governments can spell deadly consequences for those currently adrift.