KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 — As Malaysia continues to shun thousands of refugees stranded at sea, a former foreign minister has urged today for swift action from Putrajaya to save them from imminent death.
According to Kota Tinggi MP Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, silence is no longer an option and Putrajaya must respond to calls from the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UNSG) and the international community to step in and aid the refugees.
“Act now to save d Rohingya boat people fm drowning. Malaysian leaders pls respnd to d call of UNSG n intl comnty. Silence is nt an optn,” Syed Hamid tweeted today on his account @syedhamidalbar.
Two days ago, Syed Hamid had pleaded with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to let the Rohingyans land.
“Mohon @NajibRazak @HishammuddinH2O @Zahid_Hamidi utk benarkn 350 pax + 80 chldrn boat to land, avoid drowning. I call in d name of humanity,” Syed Hamid tweeted, tagging the accounts of Najib, Hishammuddin and Zahid.
None of the leaders responded.
Thousands of fleeing immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh are currently adrift at sea and at risk of starvation and illnesses, after Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand all vowed to bar the ships.
Malaysia has since said it would push boats full of migrants back to sea, a policy that has drawn criticism from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) who warned of a “massive humanitarian crisis”.
“I don’t see why we are under pressure,” said Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.
“We are doing what we think we should do. We have to consider what our people want to see us doing. They don’t want to see immigrants come into our country.”
Over the weekend, more than 1,000 Rohingyans and Bangladeshis were stranded on Langkawi, Kedah, apparently after human traffickers abandoned ship and left them alone.
The Malay Mail Online reported on Tuesday that the Home Ministry classified them as illegal immigrants, the 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.
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.
