Members of the mainly Muslim Rohingya minority periodically flee majority-Buddhist Myanmar, where they are seen as foreign interlopers from South Asia, who are denied citizenship and face abuse.
The Malaysia-bound people initially boarded a large vessel but as they neared the border, they were instructed to transfer onto three smaller boats, each carrying about 100 people, to avoid detection by the authorities, Adzli was quoted as saying.
The status of the other two boats was not known, and a search-and-rescue operation was ongoing, he said.
Myanmar’s impoverished Rakhine state has suffered years of conflict, hunger and ethnic violence mostly targeting the Rohingya Muslim minority community.
Driven out of Rakhine state following a brutal 2017 military crackdown, some 1.3 million Rohingya live as refugees in densely-packed camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.
Facing violence at home in Myanmar and increasingly difficult living conditions in Bangladesh, Rohingya from both countries regularly attempt perilous journeys by sea, including to Malaysia
More than 5,100 Rohingya have taken boats to leave Myanmar and Bangladesh between January and early November this year, with nearly 600 people reported dead or missing, according to data from the United Nations Refugee Agency.
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