Refugees: Humanity approach is most appropriate way

NEW

STRAITSTIMES

July 14, 2020

File Photo: In this picture taken on May 2, 2020, Rohingya refugees stranded at sea are seen on a boat near the coast of Cox's Bazar. - Dozens of Rohingya refugees believed to have come from two boats stranded at sea for weeks as they tried to reach Malaysia landed on the Bangladesh coast on May 2, Rohingya community leaders said. (Photo by STR / AFP) 

Letters: Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's statement that Malaysia will not send refugees who come by boats back to the sea is most welcome.

Applying a humanitarian approach is appropriate while seeking for a better solution depending on the situation.

Malaysia needs to act with caution so as not to be seen as violating international law, what more as an Islamic country that should act in accordance with Islamic principles.

Dozens of Rohingyas believed to have died in voyage to Malaysia

NEWAGE
Agence France-Presse . Kuala Lumpur |
Jun 24,2020

A vessel carries a group of Rohingya people some eight kilometres offshore in the Malacca strait between Indonesia and neighbouring Malaysia. The Indonesian Navy releases the picture on Wednesday. — AFP photo

Dozens of Rohingya are believed to have died during a four-month boat journey to Malaysia, a coastguard official said Wednesday.

There had been more than 300 people on board the boat which was intercepted by authorities earlier this month, said Zubil Mat Som, director-general of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.

The 269 survivors were taken to Langkawi island.

Rohingya say dozens perished in months-long voyage to Malaysia

Aljazeera

24 Jun 2020

 

Survivors from boat crammed with 300 refugees say bodies were thrown in the sea during the tortuous four-month voyage.

Rohingya refugees intercepted by the MMEA off Langkawi island being handed over to immigration authorities [File: Reuters]

Survivors from a boat crammed with more than 300 Rohingya refugees have recounted to Malaysian authorities how dozens had perished during a tortuous four-month voyage and their bodies thrown in the sea.

The head of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) described the ordeal suffered by Rohingya whose damaged boat had made land on the Malaysian island of Langkawi on June 8, with 269 people on board.

Malaysia: Threat to force 269 Rohingya boat people back to sea is a 'new low'

Amnesty International UK 
Press releases
19 Jun 2020

Security sources told journalists that Malaysian authorities were planning to send back the 269 Rohingya people who had landed at Langkawi (library picture) © Andrew Stanbridge / Amnesty International

Vessel landed at Langkawi island on 8 June, with woman’s dead body and many survivors barely able to walk

Coastguard says it has pushed other boats back out to sea

‘This is an unprecedented and dangerous situation. It will not be accepted by the international community’ - Anna Shea

Responding to reports that the Malaysian authorities are planning to force 269 Rohingya people back into exile on dangerous open waters after they landed on the island of Langkawi earlier this month, Anna Shea, Amnesty International’s Researcher on Refugee and Migrant Rights, said:

Malaysia Could Send Rohingya Detainees Back Out to Sea: Sources

Continue reading the main story

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.