Malaysia will ask Bangladesh to take back about 300 Rohingya refugees detained after a boat carrying them entered its waters this week, the southeast Asian nation's defense minister said on Tuesday.
Malaysia does not recognize refugee status but has been a favored destination for ethnic Rohingya, most of them Muslims, who fled a 2017 military-led crackdown in Myanmar, and more recently, squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh.
However, the Southeast Asian nation has said it will no longer accept Rohingya refugees as it has tightened border controls to rein in the coronavirus.