6 Rohingya dead, hundreds flee after riot at Malaysian detention camp

In this picture taken on Oct 13, 2020, Rohingya refugee Julekha Begum, who got married through IMO, a video-call application to "Abdu Hamid" (a pseudonym), a Rohingya hotel worker in Malaysia, cries at her makeshift shelter at Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp in Ukhia. She was told it would take five days to smuggle her to Malaysia to meet the husband she barely knows. Instead, she spent two months marooned at sea in the hold of a fishing boat with 500 others. (Photo: AFP)

KUALA LUMPUR: Six Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, including two children, have died after being hit by vehicles on a Malaysian highway as hundreds fled an immigration detention centre where a riot broke out early on Wednesday, officials said.

A total of 582 Rohingya escaped the Sungai Bakap temporary immigration detention camp in northern Penang state by breaking down doors and barrier grills, though 362 have since been re-arrested, the immigration department said in a statement.