LANGKAWI — Malaysia has turned away a boat with more than 500 Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis after providing them with fuel and provisions, a government official said today (May 14).
The boat was found yesterday off the coast of northern Penang state, just three days after more than a thousand refugees landed in nearby Langkawi island.
Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Jaafar said Malaysia cannot afford to have immigrants flooding its shores.
"What do you expect us to do? We have been very nice to the people who broke into our border. We have treated them humanely but they cannot be flooding our shores like this," he told the Associated Press.
"We have to send the right message that they are not welcome here," he said.
Thousands of migrants are still believed stranded in the Malacca Strait and surrounding waters, after captains tied to trafficking networks abandoned ships, leaving behind their human cargo.
Indonesia, which has taken 600, also turned a boat away earlier this week. But a foreign ministry spokesman denied yesterday it had a "push back" policy, saying the Malaysian-bound vessel strayed into its waters by accident.
Mr Wan Junaidi said South-east Asian governments must do more to press Myanmar to address the Rohingya crisis.
"You talk about democracy but don't treat your citizens like trash, like criminals until they need to run away to our country," he said.
Malaysia, which is not a signatory of international conventions on refugees, is host to more than 150,000 refugees and asylum seekers, the majority who are from Myanmar. More than 45,000 of them are Rohingyas, according to the UN refugee agency.
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