Appeal follows court lifting stay on deportation of 114 Myanmar nationals on Dec. 13
This handout taken and released by the Royal Malaysia Police on April 20, shows Rohingya refugees, who had escaped from Malaysian Immigration's temporary Sungai Bakap depot, detained on the side of a highway in Penang. (Photo: AFP/ Royal Malaysia Police)
Rights groups have urged Malaysian authorities to stop deporting Myanmar nationals whose lives are at most risk amid the violent and dangerous situation in the military-ruled Southeast Asian nation.
The appeal came after a Malaysian court lifted a stay on the deportation of 114 Myanmar nationals including children on Dec. 13.
It remains unclear when the 114 Myanmar nationals would be deported.
Amnesty International and Access Asylum Malaysia have called for a halt to the expulsion of Myanmar nationals to a dangerous situation and respect for human rights and international law.
“This court decision demonstrates how despite international outcry, calls to halt the forcible return of people from Myanmar continue to be ignored,” the groups said in a joint statement.
“The government is determined to deport people instead of finding solutions that safeguard the rights and security of people from Myanmar and respect the Malaysian government’s human rights obligations.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has not been allowed access to the detainees, according to media reports.
On Oct. 6, 150 Myanmar nationals including six navy officers and their families who were seeking protection from the UNHCR were deported and the six officers were arrested on arrival in their homeland, according to a Reuters report.
In February last year, the Malaysian government sent back 1,086 Myanmar nationals despite a court-ordered stay on the deportation.
About 185,000 refugees and asylum seekers — the majority from Myanmar, including over 100,000 Rohingya — are registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia. At least 17,500 people are being held in 21 immigration detention centers across the country, including more than 1,500 children, according to Human Rights Watch.
The UNHCR has called on Myanmar’s neighbors to continue “upholding their international legal obligations and life-saving humanitarian tradition of safeguarding the lives of all those forced to flee.”
Rights groups see the move by Malaysia as contradicting the former outspoken foreign minister, Saifuddin Abdulah, who had repeatedly called for a new approach to the five-point peace plan reached by Asean in April 2021 following the lack of implementation by the junta.
Myanmar has been mired in political, social and economic crises following the Feb. 1, 2021 coup that toppled the elected civilian government after ending a nascent democracy experiment.
More than 2,500 people, including scores of children, have been killed and over 16,000 people have been detained by the junta since the coup, rights groups say.
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