Nearly 500 Rohingya refugees fled a detention centre where they were being held in Malaysia on April 20. Dozens of videos show them running along the highways, panicked. Most were later arrested by police. However, on April 26, Malaysian authorities called on the local population to find the 61 Rohingya still on the run, raising cries of alarm from human rights activists like our Observer. She says it is awful to see migrants fleeing persecution in Myanmar being “treated like criminals” again.
Nearly 500 Rohingya refugees escaped from an immigration detention centre in Sungai Bakap, a town on Malaysia’s Penang Island on April 20. Six people – including two children – were hit by cars and killed as they fled along a highway about a dozen kilometres from the centre.
