LUMUT – The Kuala Lumpur High Court today ordered a halt to a controversial plan to deport 1,200 Myanmar detainees to their homeland weeks after a coup, following a last-ditch legal challenge.
The migrants, including members of vulnerable minorities, have already been taken in buses and trucks to a military base here, to be loaded onto waiting Myanmar navy ships.
The United States and United Nations have criticised the plan, while rights groups said there are asylum seekers among those due to be repatriated.
Human rights watchdogs Amnesty International and Asylum Access have lodged a court challenge, arguing that Malaysia will be in breach of its international duties if it sends vulnerable people back to a country where they could be in danger.
The high court ordered a halt to the repatriation to allow a hearing to take place tomorrow on the two groups’ bid to stop the deportations, their lawyer, New Sin Yew, told AFP.
Amnesty International Malaysia’s executive director, Katrina Jorene Maliamauv, said “the government must respect the court order and ensure that not one of the 1,200 individuals is deported today”.
She called on authorities to grant the UN refugee agency access to the migrants set to be deported, so that it can assess whether any should be granted refugee status.
“It’s important to note that the stay of execution granted by the court does not mean the 1,200 are safe from being deported. They are facing life-threatening risks.
“We urge the government to reconsider its plans to send this group of vulnerable people back to Myanmar.”
‘Could be tortured’
Earlier, dozens of buses and trucks carrying the migrants, and escorted by police cars, arrived at the naval base here, according to AFP journalists at the scene.
The Myanmar military seized power at the start of this month and detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering a series of massive protests.
Malaysia initially expressed “serious concern” over the coup, but just days later, news emerged that it had accepted an offer from the Myanmar junta to send warships to repatriate the detainees.
Officials insist that those being sent back have committed offences such as overstaying their visas, and no members of the persecuted Rohingya minority – who are not recognised as citizens in Myanmar – are among them.
But, the detainees include members of the Christian Chin minority, and people from the conflict-riven Kachin and Shan states, according to Lilianne Fan, international director of the Geutanyoe Foundation, which works with refugees.
Malaysian authorities have blocked the UN refugee agency from immigration detention centres since late 2019, meaning it has been unable to determine who should be granted refugee status.
James Bawi Thang Bik, chairman of the Malaysia-based Alliance of Chin Refugees, said he was “shocked” to learn that the Chin were among those set to be deported.
“They are refugees who came from a conflict area.”
Malaysia is home to millions of migrants from poorer parts of Asia who work in low-paying jobs such as construction. As well as Myanmar, they come from countries including Bangladesh and Indonesia. – AFP, February 23, 2021
