SLN rescues Burmese,b’deshi migrants
In a 20-hour search and rescue operation, the Navy rescued them from the overcrowded wooden vessel which began to sink in the seas 50 nautical miles east of Oluvil Saturday morning
Sri Lanka navy yesterday res
cued 138 Burmese and Ban- gladeshi nationals from a sinking vessel off the eastern waters, the Navy said.
Navy spokesman Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya said that one passenger was found dead at the time of the rescue.
He also said that the group consisting of 127 Bangladeshis and 11 Myanmar nationals that included 132 males, three females and three children, had been stranded at sea for ten days when the navy rescued them and brought to the Oluvil fishing harbour yesterday morning.
In a 20-hour search and rescue operation, the Navy rescued them from the overcrowded wooden vessel which began to sink in the seas 50 nautical miles east of Oluvil on Saturday morning, the navy said.
Six of them, four males and two females, were rushed to the Akkaraipattu Base Hospital for treatment for acute dehydration, he said.
Navy said that three of SLN navy craft had launched this search and rescue operation on Saturday morning in a response to a request made by the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
The unsteady vessel
Sri Lanka navy yesterday rescued 138 Burmese and Bangladeshi nationals from a sinking vessel off the eastern waters, the Navy said
had been first sighted by a local fishing craft named Manju 4 which had alerted the Navy.
Initial investigations revealed that the group had set sail to Malaysia on December 26 last year and for the last two weeks they had being drifting in the high seas. The food and water they brought had also finished that led to the dehydration of all most everyone who was abroad the wooden vessel.
“We are unable to get more details from them due to the language problem and already sought the respective Bangladeshi and Myanmar Embassies to help us with translations," the spokesman added.