DHAKA: Rescuers Sunday brought ashore 469 migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh after their wooden boat arrived off Aceh in northwest Indonesia.

An official said, reports The Straits Times.

‘We received a report from fishermen this morning that there were boat people stranded in the waters off north Aceh,’ Aceh provincial search and rescue chief Budiawan told the media.

‘We despatched teams there and evacuated 469 migrants who are Rohingyas from Myanmar and Bangladeshis. There are women and children among them. So far, all of them are safe,’ he added.

He said the group would be taken to a detention centre in north Aceh district, where police and immigration officials would carry out ‘further processing’ which would include investigating their motives.

Darsa, a disaster management agency official who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told the media the group had arrived near a beach in north Aceh district early Sunday and were told to swim to shore.

BDST: 1827 HRS, MAY 10, 2015
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