By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, Dec 1: A total of 54 Sarawakians were among 121 Malaysians evacuated and brought home after being stranded in Laukkaing, northern Myanmar following unrest in the region.
Wisma Putra’s data showed that Sarawak had the highest number of victims with 54 recorded, followed by Perak (22), Kuala Lumpur (10) and Penang (8), as reported by Bernama.
Those were stranded, aged between 20s and 50s, were flown home to Malaysia via a special AirAsia flight from Kunming, China thanks to the evacuation mission coordinated by the Malaysian Embassy in Yangon and the Consulate General of Malaysia in Kunming.
When met by reporters after welcoming the Malaysians at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 1 in Sepang today, Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Mohamad Alamin said there were a total of 128 Malaysians stranded in Laukkaing following the civil war, which broke out at the end of October.
It was reported that the remaining seven could not be brought home after two of the victims asked to be exempted, one was over 1,000km away from China’s border, three others were not at the meeting point at the stipulated time and another was barred entry into China as he had a criminal record there.
Nevertheless, the minister vowed that the government will keep abreast with the latest development and carry out further evacuations.
The ongoing Myanmar civil war followed the country’s long-running insurgencies which escalated significantly in response to the 2021 military coup d’état and the subsequent violent crackdown on anti-coup protests. — DayakDaily
