Sri Lankan Navy today rescued about 138 Bangladeshi and Myanmar nationals from a sinking fishing vessel off the island’s eastern coast, officials said.
One passenger was found dead, while many other rescued from the boat were dehydrated, Naval spokesman Kosala Warnakulasuriya said.
Among those rescued were three women and three children. The fishing craft was spotted off the eastern waters, he said. Fifteen of them have been admitted to the Akkaraipattu base hospital, police said, adding that rest of them were accommodated in the fisheries
harbour of Oluvil.
“We sent three ships for the rescue at a location 80 kilometres off the eastern coast of Akkaraipattu,” Warnakulasuriya said.
“We have difficulty in communicating with the survivors so we have asked the two embassies to send us translators,” the police spokesman Prishantha Jayakodi said.
“We are certain that they were not trying to enter Sri Lanka, but their boat developed trouble in mid-sea and they drifted close to our shores,” Jayakody said.
Sri Lanka in the recent years stepped up its Naval patrol to deter illegal immigration rackets to Australia on fishing boats. Under pressure from Australia the Sri Lankan Navy have arrested more than 1,200 would be illegal immigrants throughout last year.