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       COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s navy said on Thursday 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 Thursday, the navy said.

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       While unusual, it is not the first boat to head to Sri Lanka — some 1,750 kilometres (1,100 miles) across open seas southwest of Myanmar.

       The Sri Lankan navy rescued more than 100 Rohingya refugees in distress on a boat off their shores in December 2022.

       Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar for neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017 during a crackdown by the military that is now the subject of a United Nations genocide court case.

       Myanmar’s military seized power in a 2021 coup and a grinding war since then has forced millions to flee.

       Last month, the UN warned Myanmar’s Rakhine state — the historic homeland of many Rohingya — was heading towards famine, as brutal clashes squeeze commerce and agricultural production.

       Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2024