Over 100 Rohingyas flee Malaysian camp after riot

More than 100 Rohingya refugees  escaped a detention centre in Malaysia after a riot broke out, with one man killed after being hit by a vehicle on a highway as he fled, police said yesterday.

Rohingyas experience persecution in their predominantly  Buddhist homeland of Myanmar, with many fleeing to affluent,  Muslim-majority Malaysia or refugee camps in Bangladesh.

They often endure harrowing, months-long sea journeys to arrive in Malaysia by boat or sneak into the country via its porous border with Thailand.

If caught, they are often sent to detention centres that rights groups say are typically overcrowded and filthy.

A total of 115 Rohingya migrants and 16 others -- all of them men -- rioted in their detention building before escaping the Bidor temporary immigration depot in northern Perak state late Thursday, local police chief Mohamad Naim Asnawi confirmed to AFP.