A wooden boat carrying dozens of Rohingya refugees capsizes off Indonesia’s coast; rescue work begins

Rohingya refugees stand on a capsized boat before being rescued, in the waters of West Aceh, Indonesia, March 21, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

An Indonesian search-and-rescue ship located a capsized wooden boat that had been carrying dozens of Rohingya Muslim refugees and began pulling survivors who had been standing on its hull to safety on March 21.

An AP photographer aboard the rescue ship said 10 people had been taken aboard local fishing boats and another 59 were being saved by the Indonesian craft.

Men, women and children, weak and soaked from the night’s rain, wept as the rescue operation got under way and people were taken aboard a rubber dinghy to the rescue boat.