Boat carrying 100 Rohingya in distress off Sri Lanka

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.