Prominent international rights activists have called on Malaysia’s government to investigate the deportation of nearly 1,100 Myanmar nationals back to their home country despite a court order banning the move.
The country’s High Court on Feb. 23 granted a temporary stay on the planned deportation of 1,200 Myanmar nationals who have been held in immigration detention centers while a proper judicial review of their case is undertaken. Immigration authorities ignored the court’s decision and the same day handed 1,086 of the migrants and asylum seekers over to the Myanmar navy, which had sent ships to Malaysia to transport them back home. Rights advocates were campaigning against the forced deportation of the Myanmar migrants and asylum seekers, saying their wellbeing could be in jeopardy in a country ruled by an increasingly oppressive military regime after a coup this month. “Malaysia’s immigration authorities have shown a blatant disregard both for the basic rights of Myanmar nationals and an order by the Malaysian High Court,” Linda Lakhdhir, Asia legal adviser for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
“The immigration director-general has put lives at risk by sending people back to a country now ruled again by a military that has a long track record of punishing people for political dissent or their ethnicity.” Several prominent Malaysian faith leaders, including the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, have also voiced their opposition to the planned deportation of the Myanmar migrants on humanitarian grounds. “At a time of grave political uncertainty in Myanmar, our faith tells us that we cannot remain silent and be complicit to this action towards those who have fled due to a grave humanitarian crisis,” the Malaysian bishops said in a statement on Feb. 23. “Guaranteeing personal security to the most vulnerable refugees, migrants and asylum seekers must not only be governed by international laws but also by the laws of humanity, which are grounded on mercy, compassion and love.”
International rights advocates say the decision by Malaysian immigration authorities to deport the 1,086 Myanmar nationals has likely violated international treaty obligations.
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Harrison Okafor
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Judith is a believer, a lover of Christ and a Gospel freak person. A passionate gospel blogger and press writer. I work with GospelHitsNaija.net Media, no 1 Gospel music platform.
