Malaysia expels two boats carrying 300 suspected Rohingya refugees News
Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas
Malaysia expels two boats carrying 300 suspected Rohingya refugees

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said on Saturday that they have turned away two boats carrying nearly 300 Myanmar immigrants, who the authority believed to be Muslim Rohingya refugees.

MMEA director-general Rear Admiral Datuk Mohd Rosli Abdullah said the operation followed an interception on Friday of two boats attempting to illegally enter Pantai Teluk Yu, a beach on the northeastern resort island of Langkawi. The authority detained all 196 Rohingya undocumented migrants. Based on the information received, they successfully located the two other boats carrying Myanmar illegals.

The authority added that upon the discovery of the boat, all refugees were in a state of exhaustion after a long journey without sufficient food and drink supplies, which the authority believes. He stated that the MMEA had assisted the refugees by providing food and fresh water before the two boats were expelled from the country’s border waters.

The statement gave no further detail about where the immigrants came from. However, many Rohingya living in refugee camps in Bangladesh reached out to traffickers to seek a better life elsewhere. As of August 24, 2024, Bangladesh hosts more than 1 million Rohingya refugees who fled ethnic and religious violence in Myanmar.

Malaysia has been a popular destination for Rohingya refugees owing to its dominant Malay Muslim population. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as of November 2024, some 192,170 refugees and asylum-seekers were registered with UNHCR in Malaysia. 111,410 of them are Rohingyas, which make up 58 percent of the total refugee population.

Malaysia is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its Protocol, which outlines the international standards of treatment for the protection of refugees. Despite being a member of the UN, The Malaysian government has neither a legislative nor administrative framework for dealing with refugees, leaving them in a legal no-man’s land. Refugees have no right to work, attend school, or access medical care.

Byrony Lau, the Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch for Asia, reports that the Malaysian government does not allow UNHCR to access Baitul Mahabbah centers and immigration depots to review asylum claims. As a result, authorities detain thousands of Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers indefinitely since they cannot be resettled.

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