More than 100 Rohingya refugees escaped a detention center in Malaysia after a riot broke out late Thursday (Feb 1), with one man killed after being hit by a vehicle on a highway as he fled.
The incident was the second reported breakout from a Malaysian detention center in as many years.
In April 2022, 582 ethnic Rohingya refugees from Myanmar escaped an immigration depot in northern Kedah state. Six of those migrants were killed after being hit 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, Immigration Department director-general Ruslin Jusoh said 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 that the man who died had been struck by a vehicle on a highway.
Source: Channel NewsAsia