200 Rohingya detained from Malaysia coast

Malaysian authorities have detained more than 200 ethnic Rohingya, including five children, after they intercepted a boat off the coast of the northwestern island of Langkawi.

“Based on information the coast guard received, there are two more boats carrying undocumented Myanmar migrants at sea but their exact location is still unknown,” the coast guard said in a statement.

The wooden vessel was found adrift just over one nautical mile (2.2 kilometres) from one of the island’s luxury beach resorts.

The group of 152 men, 45 women and five children were being held at the agency’s lock-ups on the mainland.

Earlier on Friday, local English daily The Star reported about 200 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar had come ashore on Langkawi. 

The Rohingya are a mainly Muslim minority in majority Buddhist Myanmar.

The coast guard did not specify in its statement whether the migrants were Rohingya.

Around one million Rohingya have fled, mostly to neighboring Bangladesh, to escape a Myanmar military offensive launched in August 2017, a campaign that UN investigators have described as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.