Send boatpeople back home, says Malaysia amid growing crisis at sea

[WorldNews]

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By Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah and Simon Webb KUALA LUMPUR/BANGKOK (Reuters) - Malaysia said on Thursday it would push boats full of migrants back to sea, a policy that has drawn criticism from the U.N. refugee agency as thousands remained adrift in Southeast Asian waters. The UNHCR has said several thousand migrants have been abandoned at sea by smugglers following a Thai crackdown on human trafficking and has warned the situation could develop into a "massive humanitarian crisis". The crackdown has made traffickers wary of landing in Thailand, the preferred destination for the region's people smuggling networks, and led to a surge in migrants to Indonesia and Malaysia. "We are sending them the right signal, to send them to where they came from," Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said.

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