KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian authorities said Saturday they turned away two boats carrying nearly 300 people believed to be Rohingya Muslim refugees who had entered the country illegally.
Malaysia’s Maritime Management Agency said it had information that two more ships were attempting to enter the country after a ship loaded with 196 Rohingya disembarked early Friday on a beach on the northeastern resort island of Langkawi. They were all detained by the authorities.
The agency said authorities had detected the other two ships later on Friday off Langkawi. He said the people on the two boats, also believed to be Rohingya, were exhausted and lacked enough food and water.
Maritime Management Agency head Mohamad Rosli Abdullah said in a statement that assistance, including food supplies and drinking water, was provided to the two ships before they were escorted out of the country to continue their journey. He did not say where the ships were headed and no further details were given.
There were also no details on where they came from, but many Rohingya living in refugee camps in Bangladesh have been lured by traffickers to leave in search of a better life elsewhere.
Bangladesh is home to more than 1 million Rohingya refugees who fled ethnic and religious violence in Myanmar. Malaysia is an in style destination due to its dominant Malay Muslim population.
Many Rohingya fled a brutal counterinsurgency campaign in 2017 by Myanmar security forces, who were accused of committing mass rape and murder.
While Malaysia has accepted Rohingya in the past on humanitarian grounds, the country has tried to limit numbers for fear of a mass influx of people arriving by boat.
As of the end of November, there were around 111,410 Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia. This represents around 58% of the entire refugee population in Malaysia.
