Rohingya Rescued at Sea

Dozens of Rohingya refugees stranded on the rusty hull of a capsized ship were rescued after the dehydrated and sunburnt group had drifted at sea for more than a day.

The group included 69 men, women and children, some of whom had been at sea for weeks on a rickety wooden boat from squalid camps in Bangladesh where many of the heavily persecuted Myanmar minority had fled.

The reddish hull of the vessel poking out of the water was the Rohingyas' only refuge after their wooden boat and another vessel trying to help them both capsized. 

The second boat, belonging to local fishermen, overturned when the refugees tried to climb in in a panic.

The boats sank 30 kilometers off the coast in West Aceh.

Survivors estimated around 150 Rohingya had been on board with dozens swept away, according to local fishermen and the United Nations refugee agency, in what would represent another tragedy at sea for the heavily persecuted Myanmar minority.

"The total victims rescued alive is 69," the local search and rescue agency said in a statement, adding nine children, 42 men and 18 women were saved

Many Rohingya make the perilous 4,000-kilometer journey from Bangladesh to Malaysia, fuelling a multi-million dollar human-smuggling operation that often involves stopovers in Indonesia.

The authorities took the group to shore in West Aceh capital Meulaboh, the local search and rescue agency said.

They were met at Meulaboh port by 10 awaiting ambulances and medics, which whisked some of the refugees to hospital while others were taken to a temporary shelter at an old Red Cross building in a nearby village, said a journalist.

Six Rohingya from the same vessel were rescued by fishermen.

Some Rohingya boats landing in Aceh in recent months have been pushed back out to sea as sentiment towards the minority group shifts in the ultra-conservative Indonesian province.