Butterworth airbase "immediately available" to house boat people

GEORGE TOWN: The most immediately available place to house Rohingya and Bangladesh migrants is the Royal Malaysian Air Force base in Butterworth.

“That is the only place I can think of right away,” Penang Welfare and Caring Society Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh told The Star in response to Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar’s statement that Penang could be the temporary site for the migrants.

Phee said with the migrants drifting hazardously at sea, there was no time to construct suitable accommodations with all the basic amenities and security.

"Our state is so small. We don't have sufficient land. But we are waiting for the National Security Council to contact us so that we can work together.

"We have been constantly in touch with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees but we have yet to sit down with the Federal government."

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said on Friday that Penang was willing to work with the Council to help the Rohingya and Bangladesh migrants at sea.

He said the state had not been consulted yet but would cooperate.

"If the Federal government wants to take such measures, I think they have to find an appropriate place. We need to cooperate when it comes to national security.

"They must know where they want to build the temporary housing, whose land and whether or not we have enough land.

"We are willing to join hands to help the migrants but we don't know anything yet," Lim said.