More than 150 Rohingya stranded on leaking boat off Thai coast, NGO says

At least 150 ethnic Rohingya are stranded at sea off Thailand after their boat broke down, activists said on Wednesday, adding that several may have died and urging authorities to rescue the survivors.
Each year many Rohingya, members of a persecuted Muslim minority, risk their lives boarding rickety vessels to escape oppression and violence in Myanmar and squalor in Bangladesh refugee camps. Many attempt to reach Malaysia.
The number attempting the treacherous journey has surged following deteriorating conditions in the camps and last year’s military coup in Myanmar which brought back to power the army accused by the United Nations of carrying out a “genocidal” crackdown on Rohingya in 2017.
The vessel left Bangladesh in late November and began to leak when it was off the coast of Ranong, in southern Thailand, said Chris Lewa, director of rights group the Arakan Project, citing interviews with relatives of passengers.