UN calls for rescue of 185 Rohingyas adrift in Indian Ocean

The United Nations called Saturday for the urgent rescue of 185 people, mainly women and children, on a distressed boat last heard to be near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean.

Around 70 of those onboard are children and 88 are women, the UNHCR refugee agency said in a statement. At least a dozen is feared to be in critical condition with one individual reported to have already died, it added.

Thousands of the mostly Muslim Rohingya, heavily persecuted in Myanmar, undertake risky sea journeys from Myanmar and refugee camps in Bangladesh every year trying to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.