Malaysian police detain 41 men believed to be Rohingya on Perils beach

These group of men were found stranded on a beach in Simpang Empat, Perlis.

Perlis Aksem commander DSP Syed Basri Bin Syed Ali said that the men did not have any travel documents or identification on them.

Perlis police chief Datuk Noor Mushar Mohamad said the illegal immigrants, all men, had split into three groups upon reaching land, but were arrested by the Kuala Perlis Border Control Agency at several locations following information provided by the public.

All of them were taken to Tuanku Fauziah Hospital in Kangar for medical examination and then handed over to the Immigration Department, he said, The Star online and The Sun daily reported.

In May 2015, over 1,000 people from Bangladesh and Myanmar were left stranded in the Bay of Bengal, after human trafficking syndicates abandoned them following the discovery of mass graves and detention camps for Rohingya and Bangladeshis in Thailand and Malaysia.

Malaysian police discovered 139 graves of human trafficking victims in 28 detention camps in the jungle of Perlis near the Thai border.

Considered to be stateless and often subjected to arbitrary violence and forced labour in Myanmar, the Rohingya are considered by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

As of January this year, there were 84,030 Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia, although unofficial estimates are considerably higher.

Image: UNI