KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — The Home Ministry said today that it will help to channel aid and donations from Malaysians to the stranded Myanmar Rohingya in Langkawi, noting that this was a “humanitarian crisis”.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the humanitarian aid meant for the migrants currently housed at the Belantik immigration depot can be sent and coordinated through the Immigration Department in Alor Star.

“The Home Ministry through the Immigration Department of Malaysia is ready to cooperate and receive any form of aid and contributions from any NGOs and any individuals in helping the Rohingya migrants that were stranded at Langkawi on May 10, 2015 recently,” he said in a statement today.

He added that contributions should be sent to the Immigration Department’s Kedah office at the Home Ministry’s building in Bandar Mu’aszam Shah in the state’s Alor Setar.

In the same statement, Zahid said he understood that Malaysians were anxious about the federal government’s response towards this incident.

“I ask all NGOs irrespective of religion and race to step forward voluntarily to help the Rohingya migrants. Although they are migrants who attempted to enter illegally and breached immigration rules, but their welfare should not be neglected.

“They are Rohingya migrants who were smuggled on their own will following payment to syndicates or tekong (junks),” he stated.

He said the “humanitarian crisis” was no longer about ummah or the Muslim community, pointing out that it had elicited universal sympathy.

Recently, 1,158 ethnic Rohingya and Bangladeshi nationals were stranded in Langkawi, Kedah, after human traffickers were believed to have abandoned their boats and human cargo to avoid a large-scale crackdown by Thai authorities.

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

Several Malaysian groups gathering supplies and raising funds to help the migrants have previously said they were working on securing the necessary clearance from the authorities to deliver the aid.

Between 6,000 and 20,000 Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants are believed to be still adrift in the Andaman Sea and the Straits of Malacca.