The United Nations called on Saturday for the rescue of 185 people, mostly women and children, aboard a boat in distress in the Indian Ocean.
About 70 of the people on board were children while 88 were women, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement, adding that the boat was near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean.
“At least a dozen of them are said to be in critical condition and one person is said to have died,” it said.
“Many others could die (…) without being saved in time.”
A UNHCR spokesman, Babar Baloch, told AFP the agency had contacted all authorities in coastal countries in the region and urged them to rescue the migrants, believed to be Rohingya.
“It really is a desperate situation,” he said.
Every year, thousands of Rohingya, mostly Muslims, persecuted in Burma, undertake risky sea journeys from Burma and refugee camps in Bangladesh to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.
According to the UNHCR, more than 2,000 Rohingya are expected to have made the risky journey to Southeast Asian countries in 2022.
And since last year, more than 570 people, including Rohingya refugees, have been killed or missing at sea in the region, according to the statement.