Arakan News Agency
KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — Putrajaya cannot arbitrarily allow foreigners into the country as it is bound by restrictions in local immigration laws, a minister explained today amid criticisms over Malaysia’s refusal to rescue the thousands of Rohingya refugees stranded at sea.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, who was urged to explain the issue during Question Time in Parliament this morning, pointed out that foreigners without valid travel documents cannot be permitted entry into Malaysia.
“We insist that we will not accept those without proper documentations and passports into the country,” the minister said when asked why Putrajaya has been turning back boatfuls of refugees when the country has often been used as a transit point for refugees escaping persecution in their countries.
Shahidan said all Putrajaya can do at this juncture is to offer the refugees aid in the form of “food and oil”.
“But we cannot simply accept someone in, we have to follow the laws,” he added.
Over 1,000 Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya refugees landed in Langkawi on May 10 and were subsequently sent to the Belantik detention centre in Kedah.
Source : themalaymailonline
