Approximately 528 mostly Muslim Rohingya refugees fled a termporary immigration detention city in the north of Malaysia. The refugees escaped after a riot in the compound in the early morning on Wednesday. The escapees had broken through barriers and a door, the cause of the riot and break-out is under investigation.
At approximately 7am, six people were killed trying to cross a highway after fleeing the compound. 88 of the people fleeing the center had been caught by nearby villagers, and according to the immigration chief Khairul Dzaimee Daud, 362 of the refugees had been rearrested by 10am. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya had immigrated to Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Malaysia after fleeing Myanmar five years ago. Malaysia currently has 181,000 refugees or asylum seekers living in the country, approximately 57% are Rohingya.
Read more: Six killed as hundreds of Rohingya flee Malaysia detention
