No indication of second wave of ‘boat people’ — MMEA

KUALA LUMPUR: Currently, there is no indication of a second wave of ‘boat people’ intruding into Malaysian waters, says Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) director-general, Vice-Admiral Datuk Ahmad Puzi Ab Kahar.

He based this on the MMEA’s intensive monitoring and information-sharing with its counterparts in neighbouring countries.

“As a matter of fact, closer inspection by Malaysia and neighbouring countries involving their respective territorial waters is underway, considering it is the norm between this month and March for bigger influx of refugees and migrants.

“If we observe the influx of refugees the previous years as in 2014, 2013, 2012, these are the ‘hot’ months for such influx of refugees and migrants,” he said in an interview with Bernama recently.

Ahmad Puzi was responding to claims that international human trafficking syndicates were in the midst of smuggling hunderds of Rohingya refugees from detention centres in Aceh over the past few months.

According to the claims last Friday, these refugees were heading to Malaysia via the Melaka Strait.

In early May this year, 1,158 Bangladeshis and Rohingyas landed illegally in Langkawi, Kedah after they were believed to have sailed for months from Myanmar and Bangladesh.

These figures were reported to be the largest ever, to date. The majority of the illegal immigrants have been repatriated.

Ahmad Puzi said closer inspections were being carried out, especially in the sea near the Thailand and Indonesia territorial waters.

“The moment there are indications that illegal immigrants are headed this way, from Myanmar and Bangladesh via Thailand, we will swing into action.

“We not only deploy ships and boats but aircraft as well, to thwart the influx of the illegals,” he added.

In a related development, Ahmad Puzi believed the trafficking of Rohingyas, especially, would decline based on the recent arrest of 88 human trafficking suspects, including a military general in Thailand.

He said the arrests - believed to be the biggest in recent years involving suspected members of human trafficking syndicates - would certainly impact the movement of such syndicates. Bernama