Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng questions why Kedah is spared rebuke by Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi when Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir said Kedah has no resources to shelter thousands of refugees.

Zahid (photo) earlier accused Lim of hypocrisy , when Lim said it needed to first review the proposal to build a refugee camp in Penang, because the state is densely-populated.

"We agreed to cooperate with the federal government about the issue and yet we are kept in the dark about it," Lim said at a press conference in George Town.

"I regret that we are also being criticised for our stand on the Rohingya although we are willing to cooperate with BN," he added.

"When Kedah said no to the refugees, no one criticised them," he lamented.

Penang was proposed for a refugee camp, after more than 1,000 migrants landed on the Kedah island of Langkawi, a short ferry ride away from Penang, on May 11.

Zahid’s censure comes as police confirm discovery of 139 graves believed to be of human trafficking victims on the Malaysia-Thai border at Wak Kelian, Perlis, two weeks after claiming such graves do not exist.

Graves 'shocking and embarrassing'

Lim said the discovery of death camps in Perlis is "shocking but embarassing" as it calls into question the effectiveness of the Home Ministry.

"How can we allow such a thing to happen? It seems that the Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had lost control over his own ministry," Lim said at a press conference.

"Is he really doing his job since he cannot guarantee national security? He could not guarantee the safety of Malaysians who get kidnap in Sabah, now this," he added.

The discovery of the graves come after Malaysia said it will shelter the thousands  packed onto ships now drifting aimlessly in the Andaman sea, for one year until they are resettled elsewhere.

The migrants - Rohingya Myanmar and Bangladeshi - are believed to have been abandoned by human traffickers amid a regional crackdown, following the initial discovery of mass graves on the Thai side of the border.

United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said the Muslim Rohingya are fleeing due to persecution in largely Buddhist Myanmar, while the Bangladeshis are likely economic refugees.

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