Rohingya aid ship expects to berth at Yangon port soon

Nautical Aliya captain Mohd Firdaus Faisal Mohamed (orange jacket) steering the ship through Myanmar's waters toward Yangon as Azeez looks on.

ANDAMAN SEA: The Rohingya aid ship is expected to berth at Yangon port in Myanmar at about 1.15pm local time (2.45pm Malaysia) on Thursday.

Mission organiser co-chief Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Rahim told The Star that the plan was to unload some 200 tonnes of food at the port and leave by 8pm local time.

"That's the KPI (key performance indicator)," he said when met on the bridge of the Nautical Aliya.

The 200 tonnes of cargo would be loaded with the 300 tonnes of rice already in Myanmar and then taken by barge to Sittwe.

The ship is carrying 2,300 tonnes of cargo for Rohingyas in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

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

Azeez said it might take about three hours to offload the 200 tonnes at the port.

He said a short ceremony would be held when the mission's organisers would meet Myanmar government officials.

He hoped that the ship would be able to set sail from the port by about 5.30pm local time.

When asked about the ship docking at Chittagong and whether the volunteers on board the ship would be allowed to land, Azeez said negotiations with Bangladesh officials are "going well".

Bangladesh had barred the ship from docking at 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.