LANGKAWI: A boatload of about 250 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar landed on the shores of Pantai Kok here, near the Ritz Carlton Hotel in the pre-dawn hours today.
Most of them swam ashore from the boat which was anchored about one nautical mile off the shores of the western part of the island.
They were detained by the police and the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) after villagers alerted the authorities.
As of 3pm, the authorities have rounded up the refugees, who were then sent to the refugee detention centre in Bukit Malut for processing and for investigation under the Malaysian chapter of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
Langkawi OCPD Supt Mohd Iqbal Ibrahim will issue an update on the situation.
Meanwhile, the Tourism Langkawi association president Ahmad Pishol Isahak urged the authorities to beef up the maritime patrols during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period.
Pishol said that he was made to understand that there are three active Covid-19 cases on the island.
This was not the first time that the island resort has seen a wave of refugee arrivals from Myanmar.
In 2012, some 1,000 of them also landed here to escape the alleged persecution and famine in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.
The journey from Rakhine to Langkawi through the Andaman Sea usually takes three days, where the travellers would transit at one of Thailand’s small islands before sailing to Langkawi, which is at the northernmost tip of Peninsular Malaysia.
