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A Malaysian ship carrying 2,100 tons of aid for tens of thousands of persecuted Rohingya refugees from Myanmar arrived in southeastern Bangladesh on Monday.
Bangladesh Navy officers welcomed the Malaysia's Rohingya aid ship Nautical Aliya shortly after it reached Bangladesh waters in the Bay of Bengal.
Led by Bangladesh Navy Captain Mohammad Nizamul Haque, the officers met with aid mission organizers and assured them of their fullest support.
The ship is currently anchored about two nautical miles off Bangladesh's Cox's Bazaar district, 292 km southeast of capital Dhaka, bordering Myanmar.
Officials say the ship reached Cox's Bazar after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak talked to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday night about an arrival place from where the materials can be shortly sent to refugees.
They said the ship was initially planned to arrive in Chittagong seaport, 242 km southeast of Dhaka.
A Cox's Bazaar district administration official said the ship is being currently escorted by Bangladesh Navy and Coast Guard vessels.
The official who declined to be named said steps are underway to allow the mission's volunteers to leave the ship and distribute the aid in camps in Cox's Bazaar.
In addition to hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas who have long been residing in many Cox's Bazar refugee camps, he said some 65,000 Rohingya Muslims fled persecution and violence in Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh since the army launched a crackdown in the northwestern Rakhine State early October.
(APD)
