Malaysia turns away 2 boats crammed with migrants
Malaysia has turned away two boats crammed with hundreds of persecuted Rohingya Muslims fleeing repression and persecution in Myanmar.
The vessels carrying over eight-hundred Rohingyas and Bangladeshi migrants are abandoned at sea and have nowhere to turn, after Malaysian authorities rejected them.
Malaysian authorities have already announced that they would push back boats bearing desperate migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh unless their boats are sinking.
Earlier this week, Indonesia turned away a vessel stranded off its coast.
Indonesia along with Malaysia and Thailand appeared unwilling to provide refuge to Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar.
Stop oppressing Rohingya
Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said Southeast Asia's growing refugee problem was due to Myanmar's treatment of Rohingya.
"So that is why we need to send a very strong message to Myanmar that they need to treat their people with humanity. They need to be treated like humans, and cannot be so oppressive", he said.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has called on Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia to end rejecting Rohingya asylum seekers.
The rights group has also blamed Myanmar’s government for creating a refugee crisis in Southeast Asia by continuing to repress the Rohingya, a Muslim minority that faces state discrimination and has been targeted in recent sectarian violence.
The UN has described Myanmar’s Muslims as the world’s most persecuted minority group.
Scores of Rohingya people flee Myanmar annually to escape discrimination and sectarian violence that has targeted them in recent years.
Myanmar denies citizenship to most of the 1.3 million Rohingyas, placing restrictions on their movement, marriages and economic opportunities.
MRA/NN/HMV
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