Traffickers demand payments for Rohingya stranded at sea

Human traffickers holding hundreds of Rohingya refugees at sea are demanding payments from their families before they will release them from boats off the shores of Southeast Asia, relatives and rights groups say.

Several hundred Rohingya, members of a Muslim minority from Myanmar fleeing persecution at home and refugee camps in Bangladesh, have been stranded for months after countries sealed their borders to block the spread of the coronavirus...