1,600 Rohingyas, others land in Indonesia, Malaysia

Migrants believed to be Rohingyas rest inside a shelter in Lhoksukon in Indonesia's Aceh province. Nearly 1,600 Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees were rescued after traveling from Myanmar on wooden boats. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

About 1,600 Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees have landed illegally in Malaysia and Indonesia in the last two days, apparently after human traffickers abandoned their virtual prison ships and left them to fend for themselves, officials said on Monday.

One group of about 600 people arrived in the Indonesian coastal province of Aceh on four boats on Sunday, and at about the same time 1,018 others landed in three boats on the northern resort island of Langkawi. The Rohingyas, who are Muslim, have for decades suffered from discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which considers them illegal settlers from Bangladesh.

Attacks on the Rohingyas by Buddhist mobs in the last three years have sparked an exodus to nearby countries.