MALAYSIAN authorities said on Saturday they had turned away two boats carrying nearly 300 people believed to be Muslim Rohingya refugees, who were found to have entered the country illegally.

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said it had information that two more boats were attempting to enter the country after 196 Rohingya landed early Friday on a beach on the north-eastern resort island of Langkawi. 

They were all detained by authorities.

The agency said the other two boats were detected later on Friday, off Langkawi. 

It reported the people on the two boats, also believed to be Rohingya, were exhausted, lacking sufficient food and water supplies.

Maritime Enforcement Agency chief Mohamad Rosli Abdullah said in a statement that assistance has been provided, including food supplies and drinking water, before the boats were escorted out of the country. 

The agency didn’t say where the craft were headed and no further details were given.

There were also no details about where they came from, but many Rohingya living in refugee camps in Bangladesh have left to seek a better life elsewhere.

Bangladesh hosts more than a million Rohingya refugees who fled ethnic cleansing by the Burmese military in Myanmar.