Rohingya refugees sought after taking part in Islamic meeting where at least 665 people were infected

Malaysian authorities are trying to track down hundreds of Rohingya refugees who attended an Islamic religious gathering held February 27 to March 1, after a large number of participants contracted the coronavirus.

Mar 29, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian authorities are trying to track down hundreds of Rohingya refugees who attended an Islamic religious gathering held February 27 to  March 1, after a large number of participants contracted the coronavirus.

The UN refugee agency and Rohingya community leaders in Malaysia are stepping up efforts to get refugees who attended the event to come forward for COVID-19 testing, after cases linked to the event jumped across Southeast Asia.

The religious gathering (tabligh) was held in Sri Petaling’s Jamek mosque, attracting some 14,500 Malaysians and 1,500 foreigners. Up to 700 cases across the region have been attributed to the event.

Overall, Malaysia has reported 900 coronavirus cases so far, but 576 of them are linked to the mosque event. In Brunei 61 of its 73 cases are also connected to the religious gathering. Singapore has confirmed  five, Cambodia 22 and Thailand at least two.

Malaysian authorities have identified most of the people who attended the tabligh, but some 4,000 are still unaccounted for.

Participants spent most of their time in the crowded mosque, but some went to restaurants, shopping malls and visited Kuala Lumpur’s famous Petronas towers. Others engaged in door-to-door activities.

More than a 100,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are believed to live in Malaysia, where they are considered illegal immigrants. For activists, this status is making many of them reluctant to come forward for coronavirus testing when they show flu-like symptoms.

“We have increased awareness and have advised the Rohingya to get tested,” said Bo Min Naing, president of the Rohingya Society in Malaysia. He estimates that 400 to 600 Rohingya attended the gathering.

Human rights activist Lilianne Fan said  that the refugees “do fear arrest and other repercussions”. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on its website that it had requested the government not to arrest any refugee or asylum seeker without documents or with expired papers.

For its part, the agency has postponed all appointments, amid two-week movement  curbs in the country, to contain the spread of the virus.

Rohingya community leaders said that UNHCR wrote to them, urging them to convince all refugees who attended the Jamek mosque to immediately contact health authorities without fear of arrests. --AsiaNews

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