LANGKAWI: A social media video allegedly shows the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) seizing two boats suspected of ferrying Myanmar migrants in Langkawi waters, a day after police arrested 196 Rohingya in Pantai Teluk Yu.
In the 10-second video clip circulating today, an MMEA patrol boat can be seen anchoring near two wooden boats crammed with people.
MMEA officers declined to comment on the matter.
The boats seen in the video are similar to the one that ran aground in Pantai Teluk Yu on Friday.
Malaysia has received waves of Rohingya migrants since a military crackdown against the minority ethnic group began in Myanmar in 2017.
Between 2010 and last year, MMEA and other enforcement agencies detained 2,089 Myanmar migrants and 18 vessels.
Yesterday, MMEA began a search operation and intensified patrols to locate two boats carrying Myanmar migrants that were allegedly heading to Langkawi.
MMEA director-general Admiral Datuk Mohd Rosli Abdullah had said the agency had deployed boats and ships to the landing site, conducted patrols in the northern waters of Langkawi and the country's borders and mobilised aircraft for aerial surveillance.
He said MMEA had stepped up radar monitoring through the Sea Surveillance System to detect the boats.
Langkawi police chief Assistant Commissioner Shariman Ashari yesterday said the boat that ran aground in Pantai Teluk Yu had left Myanmar some 10 days ago.
The detained migrants, comprising 68 men, 57 women, 32 boys and 39 girls, claimed that they were Rohingya from Myanmar.
Police have handed the migrants over to the Immigration Department.