Malaysia refuses to accept vessels transporting 300 Myanmar migrants

Malaysia’s coast guard escorted two boats transporting nearly 300 undocumented Myanmar migrants from its waters, where they were discovered in a state of exhaustion due to a lack of food and water, according to a senior agency official.

According to the agency, the migrants were provided with food and clean drinking water by the authorities after the vessels were discovered two nautical miles southwest of the coast of the Malaysian resort island of Langkawi on Friday.

“We are also collaborating closely with Thai enforcement agencies to acquire supplementary information regarding the movement of the boats,” stated Director-General Mohd Rosli Abdullah in a statement on Saturday.

The coast guard did not specify whether the migrants were Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim minority whose members frequently desert majority Buddhist Myanmar, where they are perceived as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship, and subjected to abuse.

196 undocumented Myanmar migrants were apprehended by Malaysian police on Friday following the landing of their boat on a shore in Langkawi. According to the police, all of the migrants, including 71 children and 57 women, were suspected to be of Rohingya descent.

In a separate statement issued on Friday, the police stated that all detained migrants were transported to undergo health assessments and documentation.

For many years, a significant number of Rohingya have embarked on flimsy wooden vessels in an attempt to reach neighboring countries, including Muslim-majority Malaysia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, as well as Thailand. This migration is primarily conducted during the calmer seas from October to April.

In recent years, Malaysia has turned away boats transporting Rohingya refugees and rounded up thousands in crowded detention centers as it cracks down on undocumented migrants, despite the fact that it does not recognize refugee status.