At least 100 ethnic Rohingya stranded in boat off India’s Andaman Islands

As many as 20 people may have died of starvation and thirst, activist groups say

At least 160 ethnic Rohingya were stranded in a boat off India's Andaman Islands and up to 20 people may have died of starvation, activist groups said.

The stranded boat was approached by five Indian ships on Tuesday, Reuters reported, citing sources.

The UN has appealed to South Asian countries to help rescue the boat which has been stranded in the Indian Ocean for weeks without food and water.

"UNHCR urges all responsible States in the Asia Pacific region to rescue those refugees in distress and adrift on boats," the agency said in a tweet.

The UN’s refugee agency has been in touch with maritime authorities in India and Sri Lanka to help them save the stranded people.

“We remain extremely worried about the dire situation on this boat in distress in the Bay of Bengal, near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands,” Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the United Nations’ refugee agency, told The Independent.

The UN refugee agency made repeated calls on all authorities in the region to rescue and safely disembark people stranded on boats, he added.

“We repeat our warning that inaction from States to save lives is resulting in more human misery and tragedies, each passing day.”

Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project which works to support the Rohingya, said up to 20 people have died due to hunger and thirst, and others jumped overboard in desperation. "This is absolutely awful and outrageous."

At least four boats left Bangladesh in the last week of November and another in the first week of December, the rights group said.

Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, a Rohingya activist, said the boat had left Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar camp for Malaysia nearly three weeks ago and suffered engine failure a few days later.

Strong currents allegedly drifted the boat towards Thailand, then to Malaysia and Indonesia before pulling it back into the Indian ocean.

Mr Rezuwan Khan’s sister and her child were also on the boat. In the audio of a telephonic conversation with those stranded on the boat, a man can be heard saying: "We are dying here. We haven't had any food for 8-10 days. We're starving. Three people have died."

The boat has a satellite phone and a GPS unit, according to another audio clip, likely recorded on Sunday.

“We heard late last night that there were some Indian vessels approaching the boat so we are awaiting updates now,” Lilianne Fan, chair of Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network's Rohingya Working Group, told Reuters.

"We hope that the Indian Navy or Coastguard will manage to rescue and disembark the boat as soon as possible."

Every year hundreds of Rohingya Muslims risk their lives by boarding rickety vessels to escape the violence in Myanmar to find asylum.

Over the weekend, another boat carrying 104 Rohingya were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy. The boat was first detected by the navy when it was 3.5 nautical miles from the shore which lead to the launch of a search and rescue operation to tow the vessel.

"The people have been handed over to the police," navy spokesman captain Gayan Wickramasuriya said. “The police will present them before a magistrate who will decide the next step.”

Over 900,000 Muslim Rohingyas fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar amid waves of violence starting in August 2017, when the military launched a “clearance operation” against them following attacks by a rebel group. A majority of the refugees are in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh.