Malaysia said Tuesday it will send back hundreds of Rohingya who arrived by boat this week after months at sea, as fears mounted that the refugees could be carrying a new wave of coronavirus.The country is a favoured destination for the persecuted Muslim minority from mostly Buddhist Myanmar, with thousands risking their lives on perilous sea crossings every year.They usually travel from Myanmar or Bangladesh, where about one million live in squalid refugee camps after fleeing a 2017 military

Rohingya refugees fleeing anti-Muslim persecution in Myanmar are being exploited by the Arakan Army to smuggle synthetic drugs into Bangladesh. The army, which is demanding greater autonomy for Myanmar’s Rakhine State, uses money from the drug sales to purchase arms and ammunition. It moves the drugs from production centres in Myanmar’s interior to Rakhine State, where the Rohingya make the arduous trek along refugee migration routes into neighbouring Bangladesh.

Here are the latest developments from Asia related to the novel coronavirus pandemic: Japan Lifts Emergency For Most RegionsJapan's prime minister lifted a state of emergency imposed due to the coronavirus for the majority of the country but kept it in place for top cities Tokyo and Osaka.

Emergency teams raced Friday to prevent a coronavirus "nightmare" in the world's largest refugee settlement after the first confirmed cases in a sprawling city of shacks housing nearly a million Rohingya.There have long been warnings the virus could race like wildfire through the cramped, sometimes sewage-soaked alleys of the network of 34 camps in southeast Bangladesh.Most of the refugees have been there since around 750,000 of the Muslim minority fled a 2017 military offensiv

Dozens of Rohingya refugees believed to have come from two boats stranded at sea for weeks as they tried to reach Malaysia landed on the Bangladesh coast on Saturday, Rohingya community leaders said.Bangladesh has refused to let the two trawlers carrying about 500 people to land on its territory despite United Nations (UN) calls to allow them in as a powerful storm bears down on the region.Security officials said a small boat carrying about 40 people, including "starving" women and

The Rohingya are described as being “the most discriminated people in the world” by the United Nations (UN). They are one of Myanmar’s many ethnic minorities. However, the government of Myanmar refuses to recognise them as its citizens. In 2017, a deadly crackdown by Myanmar’s military – also known as the Tatmadaw – on the Rohingya Muslims sent many of them fleeing the country.

When the 34th ASEAN Summit concluded in June 2019 in Bangkok, it came as no surprise that the bloc was met with heavy criticism for suggesting Rohingya refugees will repatriate back to Myanmar within two years. More than 700,000 Rohingya were forced to flee northern Rakhine state in western Myanmar during a 2017 military-led crackdown the United Nations (UN) has said included mass killings and gang-rapes executed with “genocidal intent”.

Nearly 200 Rohingya Muslims arrested at sea last month by Myanmar's navy after a voyage of hundreds of kilometres have been sent back to Rakhine state, officials said Monday.Seasonal calmer waters have seen an increase in the number of Rohingya putting their lives in the hands of traffickers in a desperate bid to reach Malaysia or Indonesia by boat.But few make it as far as Kawthaung, Myanmar's southern-most tip, where the group of 173 were picked up mid-December.Images taken on Mon

Almost 200 Rohingya Muslims sailed more than 1,500 kilometres to escape Bangladesh refugee camps only to be arrested by Myanmar's navy, the country's military said Tuesday.The boat seizure came just days after Myanmar's leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi addressed the UN's top court to deny allegations of a genocidal campaign against the ethnic minority.With the monsoon over and seas relatively calm, increasing numbers of Rohingya Muslims are once again riski

Bangladesh authorities have ordered a leading Rohingya rights group to lock up its headquarters, said a spokesman for the group, which has emerged as a key voice for the Muslim minority stuck in refugee camps.Officials told community leaders in the camps in south-east Bangladesh to keep the office of Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH) padlocked until further notice.The order comes amid rising impatience in Bangladesh more than two years into hosting around a million Ro