DHAKA – Bangladesh's coast guard has rescued 396 starving Rohingya refugees who had been drifting at sea for weeks after failing to reach Malaysia, officials said Thursday.
The U.N. refugee agency received them from the authorities, UNHCR said in a statement. The refugees, including many women and children, were attempting to land on Bangladesh's coast in the Teknaf area in Cox’s Bazar late Wednesday night, said Lt.
Cmdr. M. Sohel Rana, the local head of the coast guard. Officials gave varying accounts of whether those rescued had been among the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who are living in refugee camps in Bangladesh after fleeing ethnic and religious violence in Myanmar.