KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak said “necessary actions” are being taken over refugees stranded off Malaysia’s waters, in a crisis where Malaysians have taken the lead to provide humanitarian aid to those Putrajaya are turning away.
The prime minister further said both the Foreign Affairs Ministry and National Security Council are addressing the “humanitarian crisis”.
“I am very concerned with the plight of migrants in our region, some of whom have already reached our shores and still others who are trying.
“This is an issue of international and regional importance. We are in contact with all relevant parties, with whom we share the desire to find a solution to this crisis,” he said in a statement today.
It is unclear if these steps include allowing the boats to dock, which Putrajaya previously said it would not permit.
Najib added that Malaysia does not condone human trafficking and will hold to account anyone involved in the people-smuggling network said to exist on the country’s border with Thailand.
Earlier, soon-to-be-appointed Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail pressed Malaysia to show courage and moral leadership as the chair of Asean by helping the stranded refugees instead of turning them away.
Putrajaya’s decision to reject any seaworthy boats attempting to dock on Malaysian soil has prompted ordinary citizens to band together for mercy missions to provide food and relief for the thousands said to be left abandoned by human traffickers in the middle of the ocean.
An estimated 6,000 to 20,000 migrants are fleeing ethnic persecution in Myanmar and poverty in Bangladesh. They are adrift in the Andaman Sea and the Straits of Malacca,
In what has been called a “massive humanitarian disaster” by the United Nations, the boatpeople are believed to have been abandoned by their traffickers with little food or water.
Both Malaysia and Indonesia that are the reported destinations of the refugees have declared that they will turn away any who attempt to land on their territory.
Malay Mail Online reported on Tuesday that the Home Ministry classified them as illegal immigrants. The 1,058 currently held at the Belantik detention centre in Kedah will eventually be sent back to their home countries.
