Arakan News Agency
Two boats believed to be carrying more than 40 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have evaded Malaysian rescue forces Thursday, as the international community prepares to step up efforts to save boat people in Southeast Asian waters.
The two boats, carrying more than 20 people each, were spotted by a Malaysian patrol near the resort island of Langkawi early on Thursday but were in Thai territorial waters, a senior Malaysian naval official said.
‘The orders are to search for them and provide humanitarian assistance. We are also prepared to bring them to land,’ Roslee Mohamad Isa, acting commander of Malaysia’s northern region navy, told AFP.
‘I have nine tons of food and clothing for the migrants who we believe are ethnic Rohingya. We want to save lives.’
Thailand is hosting a regional meeting on Friday to tackle the crisis in which more than 3500 Bangladeshi economic migrants and stateless Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar arrive on Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian soil.
Campaign group Human Rights Watch said Friday’s meeting involving 17 countries should ‘reach bindings agreements to save people at sea’ and permit them to ‘disembark without conditions’.
Roslee said the two boats were spotted off Langkawi by a Malaysian warship but attempts to communicate with them failed as they turned back into Thai waters.
A total of six ships from the navy and coastguard along with a helicopter were deployed for the rescue operation on orders of Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Malaysia and Indonesia, under heavy international pressure, have agreed to allow boat people to land on their shores.
Roslee said the migrant boats were playing a cat-and-mouse game because they want to enter Malaysia but don’t want to be caught by the authorities.
‘They want to come in and to join their friends and relatives here. We cannot allow that to happen. I think the operators of the migrant boats do not want to be caught also,’ he said.
Boatloads of starving Rohingya and Bangladeshis have typically been found abandoned by their smuggling syndicates and left to fend for themselves.
Source : Skynews
