Malaysia turns back boats carrying 300 Myanmar

5/1/2025 12:14

Malaysia's coast guard escorted away from its waters two boats carrying almost 300 undocumented Myanmar migrants found in a state of exhaustion for lack of food and water.



The agency said, authorities gave the migrants food supplies and clean drinking water after the boats were discovered on Friday two nautical miles southwest off the coast of the Malaysian resort island of Langkawi.



Director-General Mohd Rosli Abdullah said in a statement, "We are also closely co-operating with Thai enforcement agencies to obtain additional information on the movement of the boats."



The coast guard did not say if the migrants were Rohingya, a mainly Muslim minority whose members often flee majority Buddhist Myanmar, where they are seen as foreign interlopers from South Asia, who are denied citizenship and face abuse.



On Friday, Malaysian police had detained 196 undocumented Myanmar migrants after their boat landed on a beach at Langkawi. Police said all the migrants, 71 children and 57 women among them, were believed to be ethnic Rohingya.



The police said in a separate statement, all the detained migrants were taken to be documented and their health checked.