KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Migrants, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and refugees or asylum seekers face high risks of arbitrary arrest and torture in Malaysia, the latest edition of an international human rights tracker released recently said.

In the latest Human Rights Measurement Initiative’s (HRMI) Index Rights Tracker, it said that three of the groups shared 67 per cent, respectively, putting them as the groups that were at the higher risk of being arbitrarily arrested.

"Asylum seekers and refugees are at increased risk of arbitrary arrest because Malaysia is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention.

"171 Bangladeshi workers were arrested for peacefully protesting their employer, who had deceived them into coming to Malaysia with false promises of employment.

"The government uses repressive laws to arbitrarily arrest those who protest and silence dissent, particularly the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998, which is ambiguously worded, prone to abuse and often arbitrarily applied,” the group cited the points stated by the respondents in the latest edition of its report.

There were five categories listed under the Safety from the State such as right to freedom from torture and ill-treatment, right to freedom from arbitrary arrest, right to freedom from forced disappearance, right to freedom from extrajudicial execution and right to freedom from the death penalty.

In the same survey, the migrants, LGBTQIA+ people and refugees or asylum seekers also shared 67 per cent, respectively for being exposed to torture and ill-treatment.

The report was then followed by detainees or those accused of crimes (33 per cent), people of particular races (33 per cent), people suspected of terrorism (33 per cent) and people with low social or economic status (33 per cent).

According to HRMI, human rights experts agreed that human rights advocates, people with particular political affiliations or beliefs, people with particular religious beliefs or practices and refugees or asylum seekers faced the same risk level at 17 per cent, respectively.

Those identified by the human rights experts as being at risk of forced disappearance include human rights advocates (17 per cent), people with particular political affiliations or beliefs (17 per cent), people with particular religious beliefs or practices (17 per cent) or refugees or asylum seekers (17 per cent).

Additionally, the survey also found the categories who were at risk of extrajudicial execution were detainees or those accused of crimes (17 per cent), LGBTQIA+ people (17 per cent), migrants or immigrants (17 per cent) and refugees or asylum seekers (17 per cent).

"People accused of crimes, including charges under broad and repressive laws, are detained in poor conditions and subjected to torture, ill-treatment, and barriers to the right to health, which occasionally lead to death in custody,” the survey respondents said when asked about the context of their choices.

Meanwhile, no categories were recorded to be at risk for the rights of freedom for the death penalty in Malaysia.

The full data of the HRMI Right’s Tracker 2024 can be found at https://rightstracker.org.