Arakan News Agency
Strong water currents and winds will delay the Rohingya aid ship’s arrival in Yangon by at least one day, mission organisers said.
Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim said the vessel, Nautical Aliya, was supposed to arrive in Yangon by 10.30pm on Feb 8, but would only reach it the day after at around 10.30am.
“Before this we could travel at eight to 8.5 knots. But now we have fallen to seven knots,” he told reporters on the ship’s main deck, adding that this would postpone the arrival by a day.
The ship was planned to make its way to Teknaf, Bangladesh,but Kelab Putera 1Malaysia president Datuk Seri Paduka Abdul Azeez Rahim who said he had received a fax from the Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs stating that the Nautical Aliya ship will not be allow entry to Teknaf due to technical reasons.
He added the Bangladesh government had instead suggested three alternatives sea ports in Bangladesh for Nautical Aliya to berth, namely in St Martin Island, Kutubdia and Chittagong ports. At these locations, he said that neither volunteers nor medical personnel are allowed to disembark once the flotilla arrives at any one of the alternative ports. Azeez said he respects the wish of the Bangladesh government and will adhere to any changes along the trip but he hoped that the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak could intervene and perhaps convince the Bangladeshi government on the importance of the flotillla to be in Teknaf. “We have tonnes of food aid and we have medical expertise on board to help with the refugees’ welfare at the three refugee camps we had planned to go when we arrive in Teknaf,” he said.
Thousands of Rohingya from Myanmar have fled their country with many facing alleged human rights abuses in recent years.
Abdul Azeez said some 200 tonnes of aid cargo – 10,000 hygiene kits containing items like toothbrushes, 50,000 large boxes of instant noodle packets and 12,000 small mineral water bottles – will be dropped off in Yangon.
This cargo, in addition to 300 tonnes of rice already in Myanmar, will take about three hours to unload from the Nautical Aliya.
Myanmar officials are expected to meet with the ship’s organisers once it lands in Yangon.
