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UNHCR commends SL Navy for Myanmar rescue mission

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) commended the Sri Lanka Navy on Friday for launching a rescue operation to save the group of marooned Myanmar nationals last week.

“UNHCR is greatly saddened by this latest terrible ordeal, and commends the quick action of the Sri Lanka Navy in rescuing this group and providing immediate medical attention,” the Agency’s spokesman, Andrej Mahecic, told journalists in Geneva.

He said that the UNHCR is ready to support the Sri Lankan authorities in assisting any refugees among them who are in need of international protection.

The Agency is calling for urgent action to prevent the rising numbers of people killed trying to cross the Indian Ocean in smugglers’ boats. Members of Myanmar’s Rohingya community are the latest of those crossing the Indian ocean in an attempt to flee the country.

“It is clear that the Indian Ocean has become one of the deadliest stretches of water in the world for people fleeing their countries,” the spokesman said.

The Agency estimates that of the 13,000 people who left on smugglers’ boats in 2012, almost 500 died at sea when their boats broke down or capsized in the Bay of Bengal.

While men usually crossed, recent weeks have seen an increase of women and children among smuggled passengers, signalling growing desperation and lack of prospects, according to UNHCR.

Over 30 survivors from the Myanmar vessel were rescued by Sri Lanka’s Navy while around 90 are believed to have died. All survivors after medical treatment at the Karapitiya hospital have been held in a detention centre in Sri Lanka.

- UN News Centre