KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak
said today he had ordered the Malaysian navy and coastguard to conduct search
and rescue operations for boats carrying stricken migrants including ethnic
Rohingya from Myanmar.
“I have further ordered (the) Royal Malaysian Navy and
Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency to conduct search and rescue efforts for
Rohingya boats.
“We have to prevent loss of life,” Najib said on his
Facebook account.
Najib’s statement marked the first clear indication that Malaysian vessels would actively seek to reach such boats.
Najib’s statement marked the first clear indication that Malaysian vessels would actively seek to reach such boats.
Yesterday, the Malaysian and Indonesian foreign ministers
announced a breakthrough in the impasse involving thousands of migrants feared
to be stranded at sea.
They said the two countries would allow boatpeople to land
on their shores, ending a much-condemned policy of turning them away but did
not specify at the time whether Malaysian forces would search for and rescue
such boats.
Nearly 3,000 migrants have swum to shore or been rescued off
Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand after a Thai crackdown on people-smuggling
threw the illicit trade into chaos.
The boatloads of starving Rohingya and Bangladeshis have
typically been found abandoned by their smuggling syndicates and left to fend
for themselves.
Source:— AFP
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