KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police on Friday detained nearly 200 migrants “believed to be Rohingya” from Myanmar after their boat ran aground on the northern resort island of Langkawi.
The group is made up of 68 men, 57 women, 32 boys and 39 girls, police said.
“All those detained are believed to be from the Rohingya ethnic group, who are believed to have left Myanmar by boat approximately 10 days ago,” Langkawi police chief Shariman Ashari said in a statement.
They were referred to the immigration department in Langkawi and underwent health examinations, he added.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said it had stepped up patrols to locate ships carrying undocumented migrants from Myanmar.
“According to information received by the MMEA, there are two more ships carrying undocumented migrants from Myanmar at sea, but their exact location is still unknown,” director-general Rosli Abdullah said in a statement.
“We are also in communication with the Thai authorities to identify the movement of the boats transporting the migrants,” he said.
The Rohingya experience persecution in their predominantly Buddhist homeland, Myanmar, and many flee to prosperous, Muslim-majority Malaysia or to refugee camps in Bangladesh.
They often endure harrowing sea journeys lasting months to reach Malaysia by boat or sneak into the country through its porous border with Thailand.
If caught, they are often sent to detention centers that human rights groups say are often overcrowded.
Between 2010 and 2024, Rosli said, the MMEA and other law enforcement agencies detained 2,089 undocumented migrants from Myanmar who tried to enter Malaysia on 18 boats.
Published in Amanecer, January 4, 2025.
