No Script

Please Wait...

Ramadan Kareem...

Rohingya Crisis: Myanmar Holds 106 Muslims aboard Boat to Malaysia

Rohingya Crisis: Myanmar Holds 106 Muslims aboard Boat to Malaysia
folder_openMore from Asian States access_time5 years ago
starAdd to favorites

Local Editor

Myanmar immigration authorities detained 106 Rohingya Muslims aboard a boat off Yangon on Friday, officials said, raising fears of a fresh wave of voyages after a 2015 crackdown on people smugglers.

The boat was bound for Malaysia when authorities stopped it in the early morning some 30 km south of Myanmar's largest city, Kyaw Htay, an immigration officer from Kyauktan Township, told Reuters by phone.

The group boarded the vessel from internal displacement camps outside Sittwe, the capital of western Rakhine state, the officer said.

"Their destination was Malaysia. The boat was stopped after the engine failed," he added.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have been confined to sprawling camps outside Sittwe since violence swept Rakhine in 2012.

More than 700,000 Rohingya fled a brutal army crackdown in the northern part of the state last year, according to UN agencies. The Rohingya say soldiers and local Buddhists massacred families, burned hundreds of villages, and carried out gang rapes. UN-mandated investigators have accused the Myanmar army of "genocidal intent" and ethnic cleansing.

Officials and aid workers told Reuters last week that dozens of Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh had boarded boats to try to reach Malaysia in recent weeks after the end of the monsoon rains in early October.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

Comments