Malaysia’s Sarawak shuts almost 600 schools as haze hits ‘very unhealthy’ level

Transboundary haze has again disrupted daily life on Malaysian Borneo, forcing nearly 600 schools in Sarawak to shut on Friday as air pollution in parts of the state reached “very unhealthy” levels.The closures affecting almost 200,000 pupils were the latest disruptions caused by Southeast Asia’s persistent haze problem, which flares during dry spells when forest and peatland fires – often linked to land clearing for agriculture and plantations – send harmful smoke across national borders.The worst-hit district was Serian, near the border with Indonesia’s Kalimantan, where the air pollution index (API) reached a very unhealthy level of 239 at 8am, according to data from the Malaysian Air Pollutant Index Management System.