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KUALA LUMPUR: The United States yesterday led criticism of Malaysia for deporting more than 1,000 Myanmar citizens to its army-ruled country in defiance of a court order.
The migrants, who activists say include vulnerable asylum seekers, departed on Tuesday in Myanmar navy ships from the Lumut naval base a few weeks after a coup.
Human rights groups had fiercely criticized the plan, and hours before the deportation, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ordered it to halt temporarily to allow for a legal challenge by activists.
The United States, which under the presidency of Joe Biden has increased refugee admissions and sought to build pressure to reverse the Myanmar coup, said it was “concerned” by Malaysia’s move, with which Washington has enjoyed friendly relations. in recent years.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the military in Myanmar “has a long documented history of human rights abuses against members of religious and ethnic minority groups.”
Price noted that Malaysia went ahead “despite a Malaysian court order prohibiting their deportation and in light of the unrest in Burma which, of course, has been raging since the coup.”
“We continue to urge all countries in the region that are contemplating the return of Burmese migrants to Burma to halt these repatriations until UNHCR can assess whether these migrants have any protection problems,” Price told reporters in Washington, referring to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. .
Officials offered no explanation as to why they ignored court instructions and sent the 1,086 migrants back.
In a joint statement, four opposition MPs condemned the “inhumane” deportation and suggested that government officials could be held in contempt for ignoring the legal ruling.
“This act is a clear sign that the Malaysian government does not respect the ongoing judicial process and has put Malaysia in a bad position on the human rights front,” they said.
Amnesty International, one of the groups that challenged the deportation, said the government “owes an explanation to the people of Malaysia as to why they chose to challenge the court order.”
“These dangerous deportations have not been properly scrutinized and put people at serious risk,” said Katrina Jorene Maliamauv, executive director of Amnesty Malaysia’s office.
More than 100 migrants who were originally to be deported are believed to have been left behind, and officials gave no explanation as to why. Yesterday, the High Court ruled that the remainder should not be returned as the NGOs challenge the repatriation.
Malaysian immigration officials insisted that there were no members of the persecuted Rohingya minority, not recognized as citizens in Myanmar, and no asylum seekers among the returnees.
But human rights groups have raised questions about the authorities’ claims that there were no asylum seekers among the deportees.
Since 2019, the authorities have blocked UNHCR from immigration detention centers, which means they cannot assess which migrants have genuine asylum claims and should be able to stay in Malaysia.
It is rare for NGOs to question repatriations, but in the most recent case, they were particularly concerned about the worsening human rights situation in Myanmar since the coup.
