Addicts May Be Housed on Island Off Malaysia
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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The government wants to close a refugee camp on an island in the South China Sea and turn it into a rehabilitation center for drug addicts, Deputy Foreign Minister Abdul Kadir Fadzir said Sunday.
Malaysia has more than 500,000 addicts among a population of 16 million, and Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed has called drugs “Malaysia’s No. 1 enemy.” Drug traffickers are sentenced to death.
The camp, Pulau Bidong, is on a small island about 180 miles northeast of the capital of Kuala Lumpur. It housed about 45,000 Vietnamese refugees in 1979 but now has only about 5,000.
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