Malaysia firm on Viet repatriation

Malaysia firm on Viet repatriation

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysia will not change its decision to repatriate Vietnamese illegal immigrants and has criticized the third countries for failing to keep their promise to take the refugees, the New Straits Times reported yesterday.

The newspaper quoted Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as saying on Sunday that although the government sympathized with the plight of the illegal immigrants, there was a limit to it.

"We have sympathy for them but there is a limit to being sympathetic. They are not political refugees, they are just economic refugees," he told reporters on Langkawi island.

"We have to send them back ... we cannot tolerate people who come to this country and then create trouble ... try to make bombs and things like that," he said.