Malaysia doubles patrols to find Myanmar migrant boats after nearly 200 detained

Malaysia's coast guard said on Friday (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 northwestern Malaysian state of Kedah.


The coast guard said police had detained 196 undocumented Myanmar migrants in the early hours of Friday after their boat came ashore on a beach on the resort island of Langkawi.

"Based on information the coast guard received, there are two more boats carrying undocumented Myanmar migrants at sea but their exact location is still unknown," the coast guard said in a statement.


Malaysian Coast Guard director-general Mohd Rosli Abdullah said 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 coast guard is also in contact with Thai authorities to identify the movement of the boats carrying the migrants, Mohd Rosli said.


Earlier on Friday, the local English daily The Star reported about 200 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar had come ashore on Langkawi. The Rohingya are a mainly Muslim minority in majority Buddhist Myanmar.


The coast guard did not specify in its statement whether the migrants were Rohingya.

Around 1 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.


Myanmar'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, Malaysian authorities detained 2,089 undocumented Myanmar migrants attempting to enter the country by sea, the coast guard said.

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