KUALA LUMPUR – The high court here has extended its stay on the deportation of Myanmar nationals until March 9.
Yesterday, the Immigration Department admitted to deporting 1,086 Myanmar nationals, despite an interim court order by the Kuala Lumpur High Court disallowing the move.
The department said that those deported were not of Rohingya ethnicity or asylum seekers but were undocumented Myanmar nationals.
Those who were sent back also agreed to return voluntarily without pressure from any party, the department said. Initially, some 1,200 of them were supposed to be deported.
It was understood that the repatriation of these Burmese individuals was done in cooperation with the Malaysian army and navy as well as the Myanmar embassy.
They departed from Lumut, Perak’s naval base, using three Myanmar navy vessels.
Judge Mariana Yahya today allowed the extension of the order until March 9.
The high court had ordered a temporary halt to the controversial plan to deport the detainees to their homeland weeks after a coup, following a last-ditch legal challenge.
It said the repatriation cannot take place, and that it is allowing for a hearing tomorrow of a bid by Amnesty International and Asylum Access to stop the deportations, said New Sin Yew, a lawyer representing the groups.
Amnesty International’s executive director for Malaysia Katrina Jorene Maliamauv called the decision to deport people in defiance of the high court order “inhumane and devastating”. – The Vibes, February 24, 2021
