(CNN)Noor Kayas fled the refugee camp without telling anyone at home.
At sea the next morning, the teenager used a satellite phone to call her mother, Gule Jaan, 43, to say she was heading for Malaysia on a small wooden boat, packed with 87 Rohingya refugees, including 65 women and girls.
Some were fleeing what their families say is the increased risk of sexual assault and rape during the pandemic in the sprawling refugee camps of Cox's Bazar, in Bangladesh, home to more than 1 million displaced people.
Bloc's extraordinary Myanmar crisis meeting on April 24 could be the last diplomatic chance to prevent a regional catastrophe
Milk Tea Alliance Indonesia in action during Solidarity for the Myanmar People in front of the ASEAN Secretariat building in Jakarta on March 12,2021. Photo: DasrilRoszandi / NurPhoto via AFP
SINGAPORE – When Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders meet in Jakarta to discuss the worsening political crisis in Myanmar on April 24, it will mark the first time that the regional organization holds a highest-level meeting to address a specific situation of concern involving one of its members.
Non-interference in domestic affairs has traditionally been one of ASEAN’s basic operating principles, along with decision-making by consensus. As such, Saturday’s summit is seen as a test of the grouping’s code of constraint as regional leaders find themselves under mounting pressure to engineer a workable, face-saving resolution before the crisis spirals further out of control.
PETALING JAYA: It has been a year since the wave of hate speech and threats against the Rohingya community in Malaysia started. However, human rights activists say the hostility remains unresolved.
Rights activist John Quinley of Fortify Rights, who has documented abuses against the Rohingya in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Malaysia and India, said the current situation against the community remains a cause for concern.
“Since the Covid-19 pandemic, anti-refugee sentiment in Malaysia has increased,” he told FMT.
Apart from hateful remarks on media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, Quinley said, Rohingya refugees also received death threats and verbal abuse.
“Prominent Rohingya activists have gone into hiding out of well-founded fears of violence,” he said.
In April last year, social media users flooded Facebook and Twitter with hateful remarks and threats against Rohingya refugees in the wake of fake news that an activist from the community demanded that they be granted citizenship.
The fake news, attributed to Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani, who heads the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation Malaysia (Merhrom), came following reports that Malaysian authorities had blocked a boat carrying starving Rohingya refugees from landing.
Zafar denied that he demanded citizenship for the refugees but his clarification failed to quell the hostility towards the community.
File picture shows Rohingya refugees wearing protective masks keep a social distance while waiting to receive goods from volunteers, during the movement control order due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, in Kuala Lumpur, April 7, 2020. — Reuters pic
KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 — The issue of Rohingya have to be dealt properly under the current situation in Myanmar to avoid further influx of refugees into Malaysia and neighbouring countries, said Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.
“In Malaysia, we have 200,000 Rohingyas...can you imagine if the situation in Myanmar worsens and we have influx of more Rohingyas into our shores.
Bangladesh hopes Malaysia will play an instrumental role to move the issue of Rohingya refugees forward within ASEAN and help achieve a durable solution to the crisis.
Bangladesh High Commissioner to Malaysia Golam Sarwar said Malaysia was one of the countries that immediately responded to Bangladesh's call for assistance during the early weeks of the Rohingya crisis in 2017, reports Malaysian news agency Bernama.
When it comes to foreign relations, Malaysia seems to be throwing itself into drama a lot recently. There’s that crapstorm when our Foreign Minister Hishamuddin Hussein allegedly referred to China as ‘big brother’ earlier this month, although he had later clarified that he was referring to China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi personally. While that whole drama was going on, another sorta faux pas had happened right after that, and it kind of flew under the radar.
Bangladesh High Commissioner to Malaysia Md Golam Sarwar said Malaysia was one of the countries that had immediately responded to Bangladesh’s call for assistance during the early weeks of the Rohingya crisis in 2017. — Reuters pic
KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 — Bangladesh hopes Malaysia would play an instrumental role to move the issue of Rohingya refugees forward within Asean and help Bangladesh achieve a durable solution to this crisis.
LANGKAWI: Their 30ha settlement is a somewhat secluded neighbourhood hidden away from the iconic eagle in Kuah town and unknown to many Malaysians visiting this “touristy” island.
Zahairi Baharim, far left, meets with Aung Than Oo, far right. Photo: Myanmar Politics Watch/Facebook
The Foreign Affairs Ministry said today that the recent meeting between ambassador Zahairi Baharim and a Myanmar official was not a symbol of recognition of that country’s military junta.
The ministry was addressing reactions to photos of the meeting that had been circulating online and prompting concerns that Malaysia was officially recognizing and accepting Myanmar’s military as the country’s leaders. Zahairi met with Electricity and Energy Minister Aung Than Oo at the capital of Nay Pyi Taw yesterday to discuss an offshore project involving a subsidiary of Malaysia-owned Petronas.
Rohingya refugee and activist Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani and his wife look out from their home in Kuala Lumpur. | REUTERS
KUALA LUMPUR – Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani, a Rohingya Muslim refugee and activist who fled persecution and ethnic strife in Myanmar, has called Malaysia home for nearly three decades.
Now, it’s more like a prison.
Zafar, 51, has not left his home on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur for nearly a year, after misinformation spread online that he had demanded Malaysian citizenship — triggering a wave of hate speech and death threats against him and his family.
“I’m still scared. For a year, I’ve not set foot outside. I’ve not seen the earth outside,” said the father of three.
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia has called on Myanmar's ruling junta to change its course and choose a peaceful solution instead of violence against unarmed civilians.
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (pic) said all concerned parties should work together towards a peaceful settlement of this crisis.
"Violence begets violence, and the nation's future may be plunged into irreversible destruction.
"The military leadership in Myanmar is strongly urged to change its course, and choose a path towards peaceful solutions.
An immigration truck carrying Myanmar migrants to be deported from Malaysia is seen in Lumut February 23, 2021. — Reuters pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — A group of United Nations (UN) experts have called out Malaysia for deporting over 1,000 Myanmar nationals which also included minors and toddlers — including a three-year-old — despite a court order halting their return on Tuesday.
The group of experts said they were appalled by Malaysia’s action to deport vulnerable individuals as well as unaccompanied minors which could endanger their lives.
“The Malaysian authorities in defiance of the court order breached the principle of non-refoulement, a rule of jus cogens, which absolutely prohibits the collective deportation of migrants without an objective risk assessment being conducted in each individual case.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (AP) -- Malaysia's government will repatriate 1,200 Myanmar migrants next week despite a military coup in their home country, but has assured that they will not include minority Muslim Rohingya refugees or those registered with the U.N. refugee agency.
But the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees voiced concern Tuesday that there may be vulnerable women and children among the group. Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was detained as the military seized power on Feb. 1, sparking protests in the country.
PETALING JAYA: No holders of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cards or those from the Rohingya ethnic group will be sent home in the upcoming repatriation programme, says Immigration director-general, Datuk Khairul Dzaimee Daud.
"The Immigration Department refers to various media reports regarding the repatriation programme on Feb 23 using Myanmar Navy boats.
"No holders of UNHCR cards or Rohingya will be involved in this programme. This is a part of the regular repatriation exercises carried out by Immigration depots," he said in a statement on Monday (Feb 15).
He added that those being sent back had offences such as not having identification documents, overstaying, and improper use of travel passes.
JAKARTA (Reuters) - The leaders of Indonesia and Malaysia on Friday said
they were seeking a special meeting of Southeast Asian nations to
discuss the situation in Myanmar, where an elected government was
overthrown in a coup this week.
Throwing a wedge in Myanmar’s transition to democracy, the military took power on Monday, alleging irregularities in a November election won in a landslide by the party of Aung San Suu Kyi.
After meeting visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said their foreign ministers had been asked to talk to Brunei, the current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to try to set up the special Myanmar meeting.
Muhyiddin referred to the coup as being “one step backward in the process of democracy in that country”.
Shah Alam High Court judge finds no grounds to deny the two men bail.
SHAH ALAM: The High Court here today allowed bail for two Rohingya men who are charged with raping a 15-year-old girl.
Judicial Commissioner Norsharidah Awang ordered Mohammad Hassan Mohammad Rafik and Mohd Ali Hossain Odi Rahman to post bail of RM15,000 each with two Malaysians to stand surety.
She also ordered the two to report to the nearest police station on the first week of the month.
Norsharidah, who heard the matter by way of a revision, said she did not find in the notes of evidence of the Sessions Court judge any grounds to deny them bail.
Prime
Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin addresses the sixth night session of
the 37th Asean Summit and Related Summits held virtually, November 14,
2020. — Bernama pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — Malaysia calls for proportionate burden and responsibility sharing as underscored in the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) to resolve the issue of the Rohingyas as its resources and capacities are already stretched, further compounded by Covid-19.
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, in his intervention at the 11th Asean-United Nations Summit today, said Malaysia can no longer take in more refugees as the spillover effects of the crisis in Rakhine state, Myanmar, continue to affect countries in the region, including Malaysia.
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - As coronavirus infections surged in Malaysia this year, a wave of hate speech and misinformation aimed at Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar began appearing on Facebook.
FILE PHOTO: Rohingyas living in Malaysia protest against the treatment of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims near the Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Lai Seng Sin/File Photo
Alarmed rights groups reported the material to Facebook.
But six months later, many posts targeting the Rohingya in Malaysia remain on the platform, including pages such as “Anti Rohingya Club” and “Foreigners Mar Malaysia’s Image”, although those two pages were removed after Reuters flagged them to Facebook recently.
This photo taken on 8 September, 2020 shows a group of Rohingya men
sleeping on a pile of donated clothes at a transit camp on the beach in
Lhokseumawe on the northern coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island. (AFP
Photo)
When hundreds of Rohingya refugees paid traffickers to escape their squalid camp in Bangladesh, they were promised a new life in Malaysia after just one week at sea.
Instead, the group of mostly women and children suffered more than 200 days of terror on the high seas, until they landed this week on Indonesia's northern coast, where they are now back in refugee tents.
