Malaysia doubles patrols to find Myanmar migrant boats after nearly 200 detained
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Malaysian immigration officers checking an area near an immigration detention centre in Perak where more than 100 Myanmar migrants escaped, in February 2024.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's coastguard said on Jan 3 it was doubling patrols in its waters to locate boats carrying undocumented Myanmar migrants, after almost 200 were detained on an island in the north-western Malaysian state of Kedah.
The coastguard said police had detained 196 undocumented Myanmar migrants in the early hours of Jan 3 after their boat came ashore on a beach on the resort island of Langkawi.
“Based on information the coastguard received, there are two more boats carrying undocumented Myanmar migrants at sea, but their exact location is still unknown,” the coastguard said in a statement.
Malaysian coastguard director-general Mohd Rosli Abdullah said the authorities were patrolling the northern waters off Langkawi and border areas, and had arranged for air surveillance to be conducted to locate the boats.
The coastguard is also in contact with the Thai authorities to identify the movement of the boats carrying the migrants, Mr Mohd Rosli said.
Earlier on Jan 3, local English daily The Star reported that about 200 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar had come ashore on Langkawi. The Rohingya are a mainly Muslim minority in majority Buddhist Myanmar.
The coastguard did not specify in its statement whether the migrants were Rohingya.
Around one million Rohingya have fled, mostly to neighbouring Bangladesh, to escape a Myanmar military offensive launched in August 2017, a campaign that UN investigators have described as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.
Mynamar's military rulers deny the allegations.
Malaysia, which does not recognise refugee status, has long been a favoured destination for ethnic Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar or the refugee camps in Bangladesh.
But in recent years, Malaysia has turned away boats carrying Rohingya refugees and rounded up thousands in crowded detention centres as part of a crackdown on undocumented migrants.
Between 2010 and 2024, the Malaysian authorities detained 2,089 undocumented Myanmar migrants attempting to enter the country by sea, the coastguard said. REUTERS
