Indonesian search and rescue ship rescues dozens of Rohingya refugees

An Indonesian search and rescue ship on March 21 spotted a capsized wooden boat that had been carrying dozens of Rohingya Muslim refugees. 

They began pulling the survivors who had been standing on its hull to safety. 

Around 10 people had been taken aboard local fishing boats and another 59 were being saved by the Indonesian craft, said an AP photographer aboard. 

As the rescue operation got underway, men, women and children wept as they were soaked from the night’s rain. 

When the small boat overturned off the northernmost coast of Indonesia on Wednesday, it was unknown how many refugees were on board; the six survivors who were first saved by local fishermen estimated that the number of survivors was between sixty and one hundred. 

It was unclear whether all managed to cling to the capsized craft overnight or whether some had drowned.

Indonesia’s search and rescue team only left Banda Aceh city in the evening Wednesday, many hours after the capsizing, and initially had difficulty locating the boat in the choppy waters off the coast.

By midday on March 21, it finally found the boat and the survivors. 

The boat was sailing east when it started leaking and then strong currents pushed it toward the west of Aceh, according to Amiruddin, a tribal fishing community leader in Aceh Barat district.