An Indonesian search and rescue ship located a capsized wooden boat that had been carrying Rohingya Muslim refugees and began pulling survivors standing on its hull to safety.
A photographer for the Associated Press was aboard the rescue ship, saying that 59 men, women, and children were taken aboard, while another 10 had been taken aboard local fishing boats.
The refugees were soaked from the night's rain and wept as the rescue ship was in their sights.
It was unclear how many refugees were aboard the boat when it capsized off of Indonesia's northernmost coast on the island of Sumatra on Wednesday (Mar. 20). It was also unclear whether all managed to cling to the capsized craft overnight or whether some had drowned.
Locating the boat with the refugees was initially hampered by choppy waters off the coast of the city of Banda Aceh.
About 740,000 Rohingya were resettled in Bangladesh to escape the brutal counterinsurgency campaign by security forces in their homeland of Myanmar.
Thousands have also been trying to flee overcrowded camps in Bangladesh to neighboring countries, with Indonesia seeing a spike in refugee numbers since November, which prompted it to call on the international community for help.
However, Rohingya arriving in Aceh face some hostility from some fellow Muslims.
Like Thailand and Malaysia, Indonesia is not a signatory to the United Nations (UN) 1951 Refugee Convention, which outlines its legal protections. This means that the country is not obligated to accept refugees. Nevertheless, Indonesia has so far provided temporary shelter to refugees in distress.
