A Bangladesh foreign ministry official has said that the refugees were the responsibility of Myanmar.
“Why don’t they ask Myanmar to take them back?” said the official criticising Malaysia for creating pressure on Bangladesh to take back Rohingya, reports bdnews24.com
“Secondly, they are the responsibility of the country where they ended up. Bangladesh has nothing to do with them.”
Malaysia has decided to 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 grant 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. However, the Southeast Asian nation has said it will no longer accept Rohingya refugees as it has tightened border controls to rein in the coronavirus.
“The Rohingya should know, if they come here, they cannot stay,” the minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, told reporters. Malaysia’s foreign ministry will ask Dhaka to take back the detained migrants if they were found to have fled camps in Cox’s Bazar, he added.
Reuters reports, 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. However, the Southeast Asian nation has said it will no longer accept Rohingya refugees as it has
tightened border controls to rein in the coronavirus.
“The Rohingya should know, if they come here, they cannot stay,” the minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, told reporters. Malaysia’s foreign ministry will ask Dhaka to take back the detained migrants if they were found to have fled camps in Bangladesh’s district of Cox’s Bazar, he added. On Monday, authorities arrested 269 Rohingya and retrieved the body of a woman from a damaged boat near the Malaysian island of Langkawi, off its northwestern coast. Malaysia may ask for the migrants to be placed on the island of Bhasan Char, where Bangladesh had earlier planned to re-settle Rohingya refugees, added Ismail Sabri.
Malaysia also plans to ask United Nations refugee agency UNHCR to re-settle Rohingya migrants in a third country. In Dhaka, a senior foreign ministry official said the refugees were the responsibility of Myanmar.
“Why don’t they ask Myanmar to take them back?” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Secondly, they are the responsibility of the country where they ended up. Bangladesh has nothing to do with them.” UNHCR officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The boat in Monday’s incident is believed to have left Bangladesh in February with between 700 and 800 aboard, two human rights groups have told Reuters, but the fate of the other passengers was not immediately clear.
AP reports, how long the Rohingya were at sea and where they came from were not disclosed. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Muslim Rohingya have fled Myanmar due to a military crackdown and many live in densely crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh. Muslim-dominated Malaysia has been a common destination of boats arranged by traffickers who promise the refugees a better life abroad.
Malaysian marine officials intercepted the vessel Monday off the northern resort island of Langkawi, the National Task Force said in a statement. It said 53 people who jumped off the boat and tried to swim ashore were detained, another 216 were detained from the boat and the body of a woman was found on board.
Malaysian officials had intended to turn the boat away, but it had been purposely damaged with its engine beyond repair. The refugees were fed and placed in a temporary detention facility, while the body has been handed over to police for investigation, the statement said. The National Task Force said 396 people attempting to sneak into the country illegally have been detained since May, along with 108 boat skippers and 11 suspected smugglers. It said 22 boats with some 140 immigrants trying to enter the county illegally have also been turned away since May. It didn’t give details on the nationality of the migrants.
The count didn’t include a boat carrying some 200 Rohingya refugees, including children, that was turned away in April for fear the refugees may bring the coronavirus into the country. Malaysia has seen more than 700 new infections in immigration detention centers since last month, coinciding with a series of raids in Kuala Lumpur in which more than 2,000 people were detained for staying illegally in the country.
