Traffickers demand payments for Myanmar Rohingya stranded at sea

A file picture shows an exhausted Rohingya refugee woman touches the shore after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border by boat through the Bay of Bengal in Shah Porir Dwip. People traffickers holding hundreds of Rohingya refugees at sea are demanding payments from their families before they will release them from boats off the shores of South-East Asia, relatives and rights groups say on Tuesday (June 16). - Reuters

COX'S BAZAR/BANGKOK (Reuters): People traffickers holding hundreds of Rohingya refugees at sea are demanding payments from their families before they will release them from boats off the shores of South-East Asia, relatives and rights groups say on Tuesday (June 16).

Several hundred Rohingya, members of a Muslim minority from Myanmar fleeing persecution at home and refugee camps in Bangladesh, have been stranded for months after countries sealed their borders to block the spread of the coronavirus.