Malaysia Could Send Rohingya Detainees Back Out to Sea: Sources

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The New York Times

By Reuters 

June 18, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR/BANGKOK — Malaysia is considering a plan to send nearly 300 Rohingya Muslim refugees detained after arriving on a damaged boat back out to sea once the ship has been fixed, two security sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Muslim-majority Malaysia has been a favoured destination for ethnic Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar and more recently, refugee camps in Bangladesh, in search of better prospects.

But Malaysia has said it will no longer accept Rohingya refugees after tightening border controls to rein in the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Malaysia Is Planning to Send a Boat Full of Rohingya Refugees Back Out to Sea

VICE
by Sammy Westfall
Jun 19 2020,

"Sending them back out to sea is just throwing them into a killing field."

A Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh. Photo courtesy of UK DFID.

Once their damaged boat is fixed, 269 Rohingya refugees now docked in Malaysia will be sent back out to sea if officials follow through with their current plan, sparking an outcry from rights groups.

Reuters, citing two security sources, reported on Thursday that Malaysia had previously asked Bangladesh to take back the refugees, who have been detained since their June 8 arrival, but Bangladeshi officials rejected the request. The sources said authorities have drawn up plans to push the refugees back out with food and water, but “no decision has been made yet.”

Rohingya boat people being held for ransom at sea

Reuters
June 15, 2020

Malaysia has said it will not accept Rohingya refugees after tightening its borders due to Covid-19. (MMEA pic)

DHAKA: Rohingya refugees attempting to reach Malaysia by boat from Bangladesh are being held hostage by human traffickers who have demanded large ransoms from their relatives with threats of violence, according to several families and aid organisations.

About a dozen Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh told Thomson Reuters Foundation they had received phone calls from traffickers demanding money to stop relatives from being abandoned at sea and, in some cases, raped or killed.

‘No’ to any more Rohingyas

Daily Express

June 10, 2020
By: FMT

Pic (Bernama) for illustration only.

PUTRAJAYA: The government said Tuesday it will not allow Rohingya refugees, especially those who fled from Cox Bazar, to remain in the country.Cox Bazar is a refugee settlement in the southeast coast of Bangladesh. In questioning some of the tactics used by the refugees, senior minister for security Ismail Sabri Yaakob said it “made it difficult” for Malaysian authorities.

Bangladesh says will not take Rohingya refugees detained in Malaysia

malaymail
Wednesday, 10 Jun 2020

Malaysia on Monday detained 269 Rohingya refugees and found a dead body on a damaged boat off the resort island of Langkawi. — Reuters pic

DHAKA, June 10 — Bangladesh said Tuesday it would refuse to take back 269 Rohingya refugees detained by the Malaysian coastguard while they were adrift on a damaged boat.

“Bangladesh will not take them. Bangladesh is neither obligated nor in a position to take any more Rohingya,” Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told Anadolu Agency.

Malaysia on Monday detained 269 Rohingya refugees and found a dead body on a damaged boat off the resort island of Langkawi.

Malaysia to ask Bangladesh to take back Rohingya refugees found at sea

REUTERS
9th June 2020

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia will ask Bangladesh to take back about 300 Rohingya refugees detained after a boat carrying them entered its waters this week, the southeast Asian nation’s defence minister said on Tuesday.

Malaysia does not recognise refugee status but has been a favoured destination for ethnic Rohingya, most of them Muslims, who fled a 2017 military-led crackdown in Myanmar, and more recently, squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Malaysia detains 270 Rohingya refugees who had drifted at sea for weeks

B B C
9th June 2020

File photo of Rohingya refugees arriving in in Malaysian waters

Malaysia has detained nearly 270 Rohingya refugees whose boat had drifted offshore for nearly two months because of coronavirus lockdowns.

They fled southern Bangladesh in early April but had been unable to dock.

Dozens of those aboard jumped into the sea and tried to swim to land when their damaged trawler was intercepted by the Malaysian coastguard on Monday.

Rohingya man missing from quarantine centre in Tanjung Rambutan

THE MALAYSIA INSIGHT
1 Jun 2020

POLICE are searching for a Rohingya man who reportedly escaped from a quarantine centre at the Health Ministry’s Malaysia’s Training Institute in Tanjung Rambutan yesterday. Ipoh district police chief A. Asmadi Abdul Aziz said Rohim Mohd Zokoria, 27, was found missing when a ministry staffer was monitoring those quarantined at block E-2-83 of the facility at about 11am

 

Link :https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/250243

Rohingya in Malaysia, doubly trapped

the interpreter
JJ ROSE
27 May 2020

Panics have a way of seeking out victims, and the Rohingya
in Malaysia have been easy targets during the pandemic.

For some people living in the Ampang district in eastern Kuala Lumpur, self-isolation is nothing new. The area is known for its concentration of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, nestled in the grimy apartments and neighbourhoods of this former tin mining centre, and they haven't been going out for a while. The Rohingya are generally tolerated here, but here as elsewhere across the country, they are denied any real rights or protection from authorities, abuse, rape and kidnapping.

Police deny Rohingya and MPS enforcement team clash in Selayang

THE EDGE MARKETS
Bernama / Bernama
May 15, 2020

 KUALA LUMPUR (May 14): Police have denied that there was an altercation between a group of Rohingya refugees and Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) personnel at the Selayang Wholesale Market.

Gombak District police chief ACP Arifai Tarawe said police did not receive any report on the incident which was said to have been caught on camera and shared on social media.

 

Malaysia urged to end violent threats against Rohingya refugees

Aljazeera
11' May 2020

Rights groups call on Malaysia to act after prominent Rohingya activists threatened with murder and sexual violence.

This handout photo taken and released on April 5, 2020 by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency shows a wooden boat carrying suspected Rohingya migrants detained in Malaysian territorial waters off the island of Langkawi. [Handout via AFP]

Dozens of human rights groups have called on Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to address hate speech and violent threats against Rohingya refugees in the country amid a slew of online posts threatening murder and sexual violence.

Monday's open letter, signed by 83 organisations, said the surge in hateful messages attacking the Rohingya community was causing fear of physical violence and discrimination among the refugees.

Hate speech is un-Malaysian

FMT
Raees Ahmed
May 10, 2020

As a Canadian with strong ties to the Malaysian community, I am appalled to see hate speech and anti-refugee sentiments unfolding in Malaysia today.

The anger against the Rohingya has roots

THE Star 
Saturday, 02 May 2020
WONG CHUN WAI

A boat with some 202 Rohingya people onboard arrived in Langkawi. -filepic

HE calls himself “Long Tiger” and has carved himself out a reputation as the most infamous Rohingya on social media, but a series of critical Facebook posts against Malaysians, particularly Malay-Muslims, has landed him in trouble.

There was an uproar against the 31-year-old man over his rants. His identity has been revealed, and with his list of criminal offences, it is perhaps only fitting that seeking fame on social media led to his real-life infamy being exposed.

Malaysia detains hundreds of Rohingya and migrants despite health risks

The Washington Post 
Miriam Berger
May 2, 2020

Rohingya refugees stand in line to get food April 15 in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. (Shafiqur Rahman/AP) 

 

Malaysia has rounded up and detained hundreds of undocumented migrants in what authorities said was part of an effort to maintain movement restrictions in the country and contain the coronavirus outbreak.

Human rights groups, however, criticized the arrests, which have included Rohingya refugees and children, and subsequent detentions, as the coronavirus spreads easily in such places as detention centers.

Malaysia cites Covid-19 for rounding up hundreds of migrants

The Guardian
Kaamil Ahmed and agencies
Sat 2 May 2020

In move condemned by UN, refugees including Rohingya detained amid rise in xenophobia 

Rohingya refugees wearing protective masks practise distancing while waiting to receive goods from volunteers in Kuala Lumpur. Photograph: Lim Huey Teng/Reuters 

Malaysian authorities have rounded up and detained hundreds of undocumented migrants, including Rohingya refugees, as part of efforts to contain coronavirus, officials said.

Authorities said 586 undocumented migrants were arrested in a raid in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Friday. Armed police walked people through the city in a single file to a detention building, according to activists. The UN said the move could push vulnerable groups into hiding and prevent them from seeking treatment.

Rohingya face rising hostility in Malaysia

THESTRAITSTIMES

May 2, 2020,
Nadirah H. Rodzi
Malaysia Correspondent In Kuala Lumpur

Rohingya refugees in protective masks keeping a safe distance while waiting to receive goods from volunteers, during the ongoing movement control order, in Kuala Lumpur early last month. Malaysia had opened up its borders in 2017 to provide temporary shelter for the Rohingya "boat people" as they fled the Myanmar military crackdown. PHOTO: REUTERS

Mr Alam Syofik came to Malaysia two years ago in the hope of a better life after fleeing a brutal military crackdown against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state in Myanmar in 2017.

But the safe haven for the Rohingya that Malaysia once seemed to offer has turned into hell for him and his peers, as hostility against them has reached new heights amid fears over the coronavirus pandemic that has afflicted poor migrant communities and sparked xenophobia.

‘DAP-linked people’ behind anti-Rohingya messages, says deputy minister

FMT
FMT Reporters
May 1, 2020

Deputy Federal Territories Minister Edmund Santhara.

PETALING JAYA: Deputy Federal Territories Minister Edmund Santhara has blamed “DAP-linked netizens” for the recent rise in hate speech and xenophobic messages targeting the Rohingya community amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

Speaking to Malaysiakini and KiniTV, Santhara said his analysis of “all the social media (messages)” found that the hate speech and xenophobic messages were “sponsored by politically motivated groups”.

“Why did I say (these groups) are politically motivated? You can see that the people who are talking about it were originating from the DAP side,” the Segamat MP was quoted as saying.

Dr M: Don't hate the Rohingyas

NEWSTRAITSTIMES 
Veena Babulal -
April 29, 2020

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said driving the Rohingyas away from our shores and forcing them to spend up to two months at sea is inhumane. --File pic via BERNAMA

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Driving the Rohingyas away from our shores and forcing them to spend up to two months at sea is inhumane, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"What we should have done instead was to supply them with food and fuel so they can go to other countries or return to Myanmar," he said in a posting on his blog today.

Mufti-turned-minister urged to rein in Rohingya haters after shocking video

FMT
Nicholas Chung
April 29, 2020

 Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri.

 

PETALING JAYA: A human rights activist is banking on religious affairs minister Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri to put a stop to hateful comments targeting the Rohingya refugee community in Malaysia, after a shocking video showing one such refugee being verbally abused by a local man.

Afiq Noor, who is attached to rights group Lawyers for Liberty, said Zulkifli, the former federal territories mufti, must come out with a strong stand for the Rohingya.

Continue to show support to Rohingya

NEWSTRAITSTIMES
April 30, 2020
JASON LOH SEONG WEI
EMIR RESEARCH 

It is heartening to note that within our country, the Rohingya community continue to receive the attention and help from the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). -NSTP File 

LETTERS: The denial of entry to a boat containing two to four hundred or more Rohingya refugees on April 16, off the coast of Langkawi, and a statement by the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) that voiced concerned over "their poor settlements and living conditions... will bring Covid-19 into the country" were the initial catalysts for a spate of xenophobic and unprecedented attacks on the Rohingya on social media.