Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned Malaysian authorities against deporting Myanmar refugees back to their country as it would put activists, dissidents, and persecuted minorities in the crosshairs of the repressive junta.
In a statement yesterday, HRW’s Asia researcher, Shayna Bauchner, said the government must urgently halt summary deportations and grant The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) immediate access to immigration detainees to determine their refugee status.
“The Malaysian government should grant the UN refugee agency immediate and unfettered access to everyone held in immigration detention to assess their refugee status claims and other needs for protection,” she said.
Last week, sources told Reuters that a total of 150 Myanmar nationals were deported from Malaysia this month, they included former navy officers seeking asylum and intend to deport more despite the risk of arrest these individuals face in their country.
According to HRW, since April, the Malaysian immigration authorities have deported over 2,000 Myanmar nationals, including military defectors, without assessing their asylum claims or other protection needs – more than half of them in the past two months.
Malaysia’s deportation of these refugees is despite the fact that its own Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned the Junta for its human rights violations. Last month, on September 5, minister Saifuddin Abdullah called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to act more urgently in its efforts to provide humanitarian assistance and spur a peace process in junta-ruled Myanmar.
However, three days before, on Sep. 2, HRW said officials from the junta-aligned Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lumpur met with Malaysian immigration officials to discuss the deportation of Myanmar nationals in immigration detention.
The embassy and Malaysian immigration officials have since coordinated three chartered deportation flights, arranged by the Malaysian government, returning 149 Myanmar nationals on Sep. 22, 150 on Oct. 6, and 150 on Oct. 20.
“While some Malaysian leaders are calling out Myanmar’s junta for crimes against humanity, immigration authorities are forcibly returning asylum seekers directly into harm’s way, where they have real fears for their lives,” Bauchner said.
“Malaysia’s failure to provide fair asylum procedures or allow UNHCR to make refugee determinations also violates the government’s international legal obligations.”
The country continues its crackdown on refugees and asylum seekers despite it being bound by the non-refoulement principle.
The principle of non-refoulement binds Malaysia under customary international law. The country is obliged not to return refugees and asylum-seekers or any person to a frontier or territory where there is a risk of persecution, torture, cruelty, and degrading treatment or punishment.
Since the February 2021 military coup, the Myanmar junta has carried out a nationwide campaign of mass killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, and indiscriminate attacks that amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes. Security forces have killed more than 2,300 people and arrested nearly 16,000, according to Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).
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