KANGAR: Forty-seven Rohingya refugees were stranded on the Sungai Baru beach in Simpang Empat near here at about 5.30am today, believed to have been abandoned by the boat skipper paid to take them here.
The male refugees, aged between 14 and 30, were smeared with mud and looking tired and hungry when they entered the nearby village.
Perlis Police chief SAC Datuk Noor Mushar Mohamed said initial investigations revealed that 47 refugees landed at the beach, but only 41 of them had been taken into custody, while the other six were still unaccounted for.
“They paid the Thai boat skipper RM4,000 each to be brought to Malaysia in a big boat, but the skipper dropped them off at the Sungai Baru muddy beach, which the group had to wade through for about an hour before they reach the shore,” he said in a statement today.
Noor Mushar said the refugees then broke into several groups and entered the village when no local skipper would take them to their next destination in the country.
He said the 41 refugees had been handed over to the Perlis Immigration Department for further action and that it was hoped that anyone knowing the whereabouts of the other six to contact the police. — Bernama
