SARAWAK university students, left without a shelter and stranded in the peninsula after they were told to vacate their campuses before the enforcement of the movement control order today, are now being looked after by two state-linked organisations.

Sarawak Volunteers, a social service organisation run by Gabungan Parti Sarawak, and the Sarawak Liaison Office in Kuala Lumpur are now finding temporary accommodations and providing them with food.

The Sarawak Volunteers secretariat, in a posting on its Facebook page, said they will be assisting the stranded students until this Sunday (March 22).

The volunteers said that when Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the order on Monday night, they immediately began to reach out to student representatives in all the universities.

Representatives from nine universities reported potential problems like finding a place to stay and food during the order period, after several public universities ordered the students to leave their campuses. 

The secretariat did not state how many students are affected and how many they are taking care of.

Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg said in his post-State Security Council meeting at his office in Wisma Bapa Malaysia last night that he had raised the plight of the students with the prime minister and Higher Education Minister Noraini Ahmad at the National Security Council meeting earlier yesterday. 

Abang Johari said he had requested that students who could not afford to return home or opted to stay behind be allowed to remain in their dorm at their respective campuses. 

He said Works Minister Fadillah Yusof will handle the students’ problems in the peninsula. 

“The order (to vacate) universities and colleges is affecting the Sarawak students.” 

He however, reiterated that students who return will be treated like all Sarawakians returning home by having to undergo the mandatory 14-day home quarantine. 

The inter-state travel restrictions, however do not apply to Sarawakians returning home, the chief minister added. – March 18, 2020.