KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 — Umno Youth said today it will write to youth leaders across the Asean region to urge each member nation to take a more proactive stance in helping the plight of the thousands of migrants currently stranded at sea near Malaysia’s maritime border.

The youth wing of the Barisan Nasional (BN) lynchpin also said that it will join others in sending whatever aid necessary to the foreigners, including sending them drinking water and canned food.

“Refugee crises reveal what is worst and best about us. There are those who will continue to spread hatred and callousness by discriminating and killing innocent lives.

“But there are also those who will choose to aid and protect refugees, showing our potential for compassion,” Umno Youth deputy chief Khairul Azwan Harun said in a statement here.

“I believe that a people-centred Asean stands for the latter, and we need to prove that by providing the leadership to put a stop to this issue,” he added.

Khairul also urged Malaysia as chairman of Asean to call for an emergency meeting to demand that Myanmar ceases its discrimination of the marginalised Rohingya people.

He said other Asean leaders must also play an active role to provide humanitarian aid as a long-term solution to the crisis is found.

Over the weekend, more than 1,000 Rohingyas and Bangladeshis were stranded on Langkawi in Kedah, apparently after human traffickers abandoned ship and left them alone.

Malay Mail Online reported on Tuesday that the Home Ministry classifies them as illegal immigrants, and that all 1,058 of them will be held at the Belantik detention centre in Kedah over the next one to three months before they are sent back to their home countries.

Putrajaya has since said it will turn away any other seaworthy boats carrying the mostly Rohingya Muslims should they reach Malaysian shores, following the ongoing crisis at sea involving thousands of refugees.

The United States last year downgraded Thailand and Malaysia to its list of the world’s worst centres of human trafficking, dumping them in the same category as North Korea and Syria.

Despite Putrajaya’s stance, however, there has been an outpouring of sympathy from Malaysians over the plight of the refugees, many of whom are still adrift at sea.

Several groups have already mobilised a collection of food items and medical supplies, and are now working on securing the necessary clearance from the authorities to deliver the aid.

Some prominent social activists have also started to mobilise help for the refugees, including Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, daughter of former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed.

She started a Facebook thread on her page this morning, which has already garnered over 1,000 likes, 200 shares and lots of comments from Malaysians chipping in to help.