Malaysia returns 2 boats carrying around 300 Rohingya refugees
Malaysian authorities said on Saturday they had turned back two boats carrying about 300 people believed to be Muslim Rohingya refugees who were found to have entered the country illegally.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said it had received information that two more boats were attempting to enter the country after a boat carrying 196 Rohingya grounded on a beach on the northeastern resort island of Langkawi early Friday. All of them were taken into custody by the authorities.
The agency said authorities had detected two other boats near Langkawi on Friday. It said the people on both boats, also believed to be Rohingya, were exhausted and did not have adequate supplies of food and water.
Mohammad Rosli Abdullah, head of the Maritime Enforcement Agency, said in a statement that both boats had been provided assistance including food supplies and drinking water before they were taken out of the country to continue their journey. It did not say where the boats were headed, and gave no further details.
There are also no details on where they come from, but many Rohingya living in refugee camps in Bangladesh have been lured by smugglers to seek a better life elsewhere.
Bangladesh hosts more than 1 million Rohingya refugees who fled ethnic and religious violence in Myanmar. Malaysia is a popular destination due to its dominant Malay Muslim population.
In 2017 many Rohingya fled a brutal counter-terrorism campaign by Myanmar security forces, who were accused of mass rape and killings.
While Malaysia has accepted the Rohingya on humanitarian grounds in the past, the country has tried to limit the number due to fears of large numbers of people arriving on boats.
As of the end of November, there were approximately 111,410 Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia. This accounts for approximately 58% of the total refugee population in Malaysia.
