KUALA LUMPUR – Amnesty International has called on the Malaysian government to immediately halt all forced deportations of people from Myanmar and ensure they are given the opportunity to claim asylum.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) should also be given access to all persons in immigration detention centres, including women, children, and men from Myanmar, while people who wish to seek asylum must be released from detention, it said.
It noted reports that over 150 Myanmar nationals have been deported from Malaysia, in cooperation with the Myanmar military authorities, since the beginning of October.
Earlier today, Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, who chairs the Malaysian Advisory Group on Myanmar, criticised the deportation on October 6 as being in breach of the international non-refoulement principle.
“The deportation, which included six defectors from the Myanmar military, is also ‘tragic’, as Malaysia had played a leading role in speaking about the human rights of citizens there,” said the former foreign affairs minister.
Amnesty expressed concern that more people may be forcibly deported in the coming weeks and months.
It said the deportations were happening despite the insecure situation in Myanmar resulting from the military coup there in February 2021.
“Given the grave human rights situation in Myanmar, those who are forcibly deported are at risk of persecution, torture, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment,” it said in a statement today.
Amnesty said it has documented ongoing and serious human rights violations in Myanmar since the 2021 coup.
“The organisation recently published compelling evidence of torture at the hands of the Myanmar military to extract information as well as appalling conditions inside prisons and interrogation centres there.
“The Myanmar military regularly arrests people for expressing dissent and subjects detainees to torture in detention.
“In eastern Myanmar, Amnesty International documented war crimes and possible crimes against humanity committed by the military,” it said.
Amnesty noted that Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, had said in September that conditions have gone from “bad to worse to horrific” since the military seized power.
More than 2,300 people have been killed since the coup and thousands arrested, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a local civil society group monitoring human rights violations, it added.
Efforts to restore peace, such as the Asean five-point consensus plan, have also failed, as Malaysia’s caretaker foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah recently acknowledged.
“Forced deportations of people from Myanmar without the option to seek asylum directly contradicts recent pronouncements by the foreign minister, who has been critical of the military authorities,” Amnesty said.
Malaysia, as a member of the UN Human Rights Council, should refrain from actions violating international human rights law, including the right to seek asylum, it added.
“People who are unable or unwilling to return to Myanmar should be allowed to remain safely in Malaysia without risk of refoulement, and be able to regularise their stay either through extension of their work permits and other visas or access to asylum proceedings, and should be able to enjoy their rights.
“No one should be forcibly returned to Myanmar for any reason due to the current brutal conditions in the country,” it said.
Amnesty also said it is concerned by the arbitrary and indefinite immigration detention of people in Malaysia, including those from Myanmar. – The Vibes, October 21, 2022
