Rohingya aid ship docks at Yangon

Aid mission organisers at Yangon Port together with some of the hygiene kits (in boxes) to be given to Rohingyas in Myanmar.

YANGON: The Rohingya aid ship Nautical Aliya docked at the Yangon port at about 3pm local time Thursday.

It was met by a crowd of about 100 people, mostly journalists and local officials.

Myanmar's Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Minister Win Myat Aye, Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican and Malaysian Ambassador to Myanmar Mohd Haniff were at the port to welcome the ship.

A small group of about 29 people were allowed to get off the ship and meet with local officials and speak to the press there.

At about 3.50pm local time, several Myanmar officials including those from the country's Customs and Health Ministry came on board.

Yangon Port workers unloading the aid cargo from the Nautical Aliya.

 

When met, Reezal said he welcomed the "magnanimity of the Myanmar government" for allowing the ship to dock at Yangon.

The Nautical Aliya is carrying some 2,300 tonnes of aid cargo for Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh. Thousands of Rohingya have fled alleged human rights abuses in Myanmar to neighbouring countries.

The 200 tonnes of cargo, which will take three hours to be offloaded from the ship, would be loaded with the 300 tonnes of rice already in Myanmar and then taken by barge to Sittwe.

The balance of the cargo would be taken to Bangladesh and offloaded at Chittagong port.

Bangladesh had barred the ship from docking at its original destination of Teknaf, where thousands of Rohingya refugees are believed to reside.

It had offered Chittagong port, some 200km north of Teknaf, as one of the alternatives the ship can dock at, but specified that no volunteers would be allowed to land.