Malaysia warning on Rohingya refugee influx
Qatar Tribune
DPA Jakarta An influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to Malaysia is likely unless the crisis stemming from this yearâs military coup in Myanmar is resol...
DPAJakartaAn influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to Malaysia is likely unless the crisis stemming from this yearâs military coup in Myanmar is resolved, warned Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yakoob on Wednesday. âWe need to resolve the Myanmar issue and Malaysia and Indonesia have the same view on this,â Ismail said after talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the presidential palace. âThe current crisis in Myanmar will result in more Rohingya refugees fleeing to Malaysia,â he said, adding that his country had already taken in 200,000 Rohingya. Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar are members of the Association of the South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). At their summit last month, ASEAN leaders urged Myanmarâs military to make good on its commitment to end violence and restore democracy. The chief of Myanmarâs junta, Min Aung Hlaing, was barred from attending due to the failure to take steps to restore democracy after the February 1 coup.  According to rights groups, more than 1,000 civilians have been killed by soldiers in Myanmar during anti-coup protests since the military takeover, which toppled the civilian government led by 1991 Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.More than 1 million Rohingya Muslims have fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, most of them still languishing in dozens of refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.Nearly 750,000 of them crossed the border after Myanmar launched a military offensive against the minority group in northern Rakhine in August 2017, following attacks on security checkpoints, allegedly carried out by an insurgent group, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).