“Myanmar would love to send out boats of Rohingya from the northern Rakhine state to other countries, but we already have refugees here,” he told reporters after attending the Forum on International Solidarity with Rohingya 2017 today.

Syed Hamid is also the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s Special Envoy to Myanmar.

He said Malaysia wants the Rohingya to stay in their own country but this isn’t because Malaysia is hesitant to take them in.

“We have always been the recipient of refugees. We want to make sure we are not opening the floodgates for all refugees to enter the country,” he explained.

He said Malaysia has taken in about 7,000 Rohingya who arrived by boat in 2015.

“Currently there are about 70,000 registered Rohingya living here. There could be more as many have yet to register. This figure also includes the other minorities that have fled Myanmar because of the atrocities there.

“When there is a problem, they all want to come to Malaysia.”

Syed Hamid also wanted the government to document the Rohingya so they can get employment here easily.

“Instead of bringing in people from other places, they can be employed here and earn a living.”

He said the Myanmar government, under the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, must stop the carnage by its military which has aroused anger among the international community, more so when the country was moving towards democracy.