Over 100 Myanmar migrants flee Malaysian detention centre, one dead

An undocumented migrant from Myanmar lost his life in a road accident while attempting to escape from an immigration detention facility along with more than a hundred others in Malaysia late on Thursday, according to Reuters, citing officials. This occurrence marks the second reported escape from a Malaysian detention center within two years. In April 2022, 582 ethnic Rohingya refugees from Myanmar broke out of an immigration depot in the northern Kedah state. Among them, six migrants lost their lives after being struck by vehicles on a highway. “A total of 131 migrants escaped from the Bidor immigration detention depot in Malaysia’s western Perak state on Thursday night,” Reuters quoted Immigration Department director-general Ruslin Jusoh as saying in a statement on Friday. “One of the migrants died following a road accident,” he said, adding that search operations were ongoing for the remaining escapees. The migrants, who escaped from the men’s block of the depot, included 115 ethnic Rohingya refugees and 16 Myanmar nationals of other ethnicities, state news agency Bernama reported, citing a statement from Perak police. Bernama reported the man who died had been struck by a vehicle on a highway. Advertisement · Malaysia, which does not recognise refugee status, has long been a favoured destination for ethnic Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar or refugee camps in Bangladesh. With inputs from agencies