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Reuters

Malaysia has intercepted a boat carrying 56 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar off its northern island of Langkawi, authorities said on Tuesday, with some rights groups expecting further perilous journeys by sea after last year’s surge in violence in Myanmar.
The boat had stopped at an island in southern Thailand on Sunday after a storm, with officials there saying the refugees were heading to Malaysia.
It had set sail from central Rakhine state in Myanmar, the UN refugee agency said.
“Generally all 56 passengers, mostly children and women, are safe but tired and hungry,” Malaysian navy chief Admiral Ahmad Kamarulzaman Ahmad Badaruddin said.
“We have provided them with water, food and other humanitarian assistance.”
According to UN and other rights groups, some 700,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya fled their homes in Rakhine into Bangladesh after militant attacks in August last year sparked a military crackdown that the United Nations and Western countries have said constitutes ethnic cleansing.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejects that charge, saying its forces have been waging a legitimate campaign against “terrorists” who attacked government forces.
Tens of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar by sea following an outbreak of sectarian violence in Rakhine in 2012, some falling prey to human traffickers.
That exodus peaked in 2015, when an estimated 25,000 people fled across the Andaman Sea for Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, many drowning in unsafe and overloaded boats.
Due to the fresh outbreak of violence in Myanmar, some rights groups expect another surge in Rohingya boats reaching Southeast Asia, during the months the seas are calmer, even if not at the levels of three years ago.


However, an expert on the plight of the Rohingya said the appearance this week of the boat – the first known case this year – does not portend a new exodus by sea.
Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, an independent research and advocacy group, said that the safe time for such journeys is about to pass, as the annual monsoon season normally starts in April.
Tight security by Myanmar officials also makes departures difficult, though it would not be surprising if a handful of more boats were seen in the near future, she said.
Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency Director General Zulkifili Abu Bakar said the latest refugees would be allowed to enter the country on humanitarian grounds.
“They will be handed over to the Immigration Department,” he said.
Muslim-majority Malaysia, which has not signed the UN Refugee Convention and treats refugees as illegal migrants, is already home to more than 100,000 Rohingya refugees.
Additional reporting by Associated Press


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Rohingya Muslims

Malaysia intercepts boat carrying 56 Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar

Malaysian navy officers detain a boat which carried Rohingya migrants off Langkawi, Malaysia. Photo: AP

This picture taken with a mobile phone on March 31, 2018, shows Rohingya refugees getting drinking water from a Thai fishing boat (not in picture), near Koh Phi Phi Leh, Krabi Province of Thailand. Bangladesh officials said on April 2, 2018, a fishing boat carrying Rohingya Muslims to Southeast Asia did not set sail from its shores, where close to one million refugees live in congested camps. / AFP PHOTO / Assadawuth SUDEN / XGTY -RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / "Assadawuth SUDEN"

Thai navy escorts boat carrying Rohingya towards Malaysia as overcrowding in squalid Bangladesh refugee camps worsens

The wooden boat carrying Rohingya refugees being towed by a Royal Thai Navy rescue team on an island in Krabi province. Photo: AFP

epa06640779 A handout photo made available by the Thai Royal Navy shows a wooden boat used by Rohingya refugees docked at an island in Krabi province, southern Thailand, 01 April 2018. The boat carrying more than 50 Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar believed en route to Malaysia temporary took refuge in Koh Lanta island to avoid the storm. Thai Navy, soldiers and villagers provided them with food and fuel before sending them back on their way to the sea. EPA-EFE/ROYAL THAI NAVY HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

epa06640780 A handout photo made available by the Thai Royal Navy shows Rohingya refugees resting after given food and water at an island in Krabi province, southern Thailand, 01 April 2018. The boat carrying more than 50 Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar believed en route to Malaysia temporary took refuge in Koh Lanta island to avoid the storm. Thai Navy, soldiers and villagers provided them with food and fuel before sending them back on their way to the sea. EPA-EFE/ROYAL THAI NAVY HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 28, 2017, Rohingya Muslim refugees wait to be called to receive food aid of rice, water and cooking oil in a relief centre at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar. Buddhism may be touted in the west as an inherently peaceful philosophy but a surge in violent rhetoric from small but increasingly influential groups of hardline monks in parts of Asia is upending the religion's tolerant image. In Myanmar, ultra-nationalist monks led by firebrand preacher Ashin Wirathu have poured vitriol on the country's small Muslim population, cheering a military crackdown forcing nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslim into Bangladesh. / AFP PHOTO / Ed JONES

This handout photo taken and released by the Royal Thai Army on April 1, 2018 shows Rohingya refugees aboard a wooden boat greeted by Royal Thai military personnels at sea, while being escorted by a Royal Thai Navy boat (not shown), as it sails towards Thailand-Malaysia sea boundary, off the coast of Krabi. A boat carrying dozens of Rohingya refugees trying to reach Malaysia was briefly stopped on a Thai island, an official said April 1, as fears grow about overcrowded camps for the stateless minority fleeing violence in Myanmar. / AFP PHOTO / ROYAL THAI ARMY / Handout / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / ROYAL THAI ARMY" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

Myanmar agrees to UN Security Council visit after months of resistance and fleeing of 700,000 Rohingya

Rohingya refugees who fled violence in the state of Rakhine are seen at a camp outside Maungdaw, Myanmar, in March. Photo: Reuters

epa06642198 Ambassador Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, Permanent Representative of Peru to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of April during a press conference at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, New York, USA, 02 April 2018. EPA-EFE/ALBA VIGARAY

Rohingya people who fled from their towns after the violence in the state of Rakhine, are seen behind a fence on the border line outside Maungdaw, Myanmar March 31, 2018. Picture taken March 31, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer NO RESALES NO ARCHIVES

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The boat had stopped temporarily Sunday in southern Thailand, where it underwent repairs and was resupplied with fuel and food before being sent on its way to Malaysia, as its passengers reportedly desired


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Myanmar