KUALA LUMPUR: More than 40 exhausted and hungry Rohingya refugees have been recaptured by Malaysian police following a detention centre breakout by 131 migrants from Myanmar, a senior police official said Sunday (Dec 4).
On Thursday, a total of 115 Rohingya migrants and 16 others – all of them men – rioted in their detention building before escaping the Bidor temporary immigration centre in northern Perak state.
The Rohingya experience persecution in their predominantly Buddhist homeland of Myanmar, with many fleeing to affluent, Muslim-majority Malaysia or to refugee camps in Bangladesh.
They often endure harrowing, months-long sea journeys to arrive in Malaysia by boat or sneak into the country via its porous border with Thailand.
If caught, they are usually sent to detention centres that rights groups say are typically overcrowded and filthy.
One Rohingya man was confirmed killed on Thursday in a road accident as he tried crossing a highway in darkness.
The 41 Rohingya men were rearrested at a palm oil estate and in the forest surrounding the nearby towns of Tapah and Bidor after a public tip-off, Perak police chief Mohamad Yusri Hassan Basri told AFP.
