DHAKA, 28 February, 2021, (TON): Bangladesh is under "no obligation" to shelter 81 Rohingya Muslim refugees adrift for almost two weeks on the Andaman Sea and being assisted by neighboring India, said Bangladesh foreign minister A.K. Abdul Momen. 

India`s coast guard found the 81 survivors and eight dead crammed onto a crippled fishing boat and were trying to arrange for Bangladesh to take them, Indian officials said on Friday.  

Momen said to a news agency that Bangladesh expects India, the closest country, or Myanmar, the Rohingyas` country of origin, to accept them. However, Indian foreign ministry officials did not respond to requests for comment. 

External Affairs Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said on Thursday that India was "in discussions with the Government of Bangladesh to ensure their safe and secure repatriation." 

The Rohingya people have faced decades of systematic discrimination, statelessness and targeted violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar. 

More than 1 million Rohingya refugees from predominantly Buddhist Myanmar are living in teeming camps in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. 

In August 2017, a deadly crackdown by Myanmar's army on Rohingya Muslims sent hundreds of thousands fleeing across the border into Bangladesh.