Sri Lanka’s navy has rescued 104 Rohingya adrift off the Indian Ocean island nation’s northern coast, an official said.
The boat was first detected by the Sri Lanka Navy when it was 3.5 nautical miles from shore and a search and rescue operation was launched to eventually tow the vessel to a northern harbour on Sunday night, a navy spokesperson, Captain Gayan Wickramasuriya was quoted as saying by Reuters.
"The people have been handed over to the police," Wickramasuriya said. "The police will present them before a magistrate who will decide the next step."
A navy statement said 104 Myanmar nationals were found aboard a small trawler suspected to have originated from Myanmar and was heading to Indonesia when it ran into engine trouble in rough seas.
Wickramasuriya said 39 women and 23 minors were among the rescued people, and an 80-year old man, one mother and her two children were admitted to hospital suffering from minor sickness, the Reuters report said.
In 2018, more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to neighbouring Bangladesh following a military crackdown in Myanmar that witnesses said included mass killings and rape.
Rights groups and media have documented killings of civilians and the burning of villages, the report added.
Myanmar authorities have said they were battling an insurgency and deny carrying out systematic atrocities.