Malaysia must immediately stop deporting asylum seekers to Myanmar, advisory group tells govt

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — The Malaysian government should stop sending Myanmar asylum seekers back to their country as their safety and lives may be under threat, a group which advises the government and the public on Myanmar matters said today.

Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, the chairman of the Malaysian Advisory Group on Myanmar, said the group condemns Malaysia’s October 6 deportation of 150 Myanmar citizens, including those who were seeking asylum.

“Six of those deported were defectors from the Myanmar military. They were all arrested upon arrival in Myanmar and are now imprisoned and may face capital punishment,” he said in a statement today, referring to the risk of death sentences.

The group also said the recent deportation is a breach of the international principle of “non-refoulement” or the principle where no one should be returned to a country where they would face torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment or other irreparable harm, as these asylum seekers were sent back to their country of origin at risk to their lives and security.

“We urge the government of Malaysia to immediately halt all further deportations to Myanmar until it can be assured that adequate procedures of assessing asylum claims have been conducted.

“Further, the Malaysian Government should take immediate measures to ensure that it does not further violate the principle of non-refoulement.

“The deportation is especially tragic given that Malaysia has played a leading role in standing up for the human rights of the people of Myanmar and encouraging other Asean Member States to engage with stakeholders as part of the Asean Five Point Consensus,” he said.

Syed Hamid pointed out that Myanmar had recently executed activists and civilians, and listed multiple reports which recorded the “brutal violation of human rights” in Myanmar.

He then went on to cite several such reports, including United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet as having in June noted that at least 1,900 killings by Myanmar’s military had been reported since February 2021, and the A/HRC/50/CRP.1 report UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar’s paper in June to July at the UN Human Rights Council where Myanmar’s military junta was said to have killed at least 16 children and tortured at least 142 children.

Syed Hamid also noted that Myanmar’s military had executed four democracy activists in July in what is believed to be the first use of capital punishment in decades, and with Amnesty International’s August report (ASA 16/5884/2022) stating that detainees in Myanmar were tortured and subjected to multiple other human rights violations.

Syed Hamid urged the Malaysian government to have a strong and coherent position on Myanmar, by aligning Malaysia’s national policies to its foreign policy position.

“As a priority, Malaysia must ensure that procedures for assessing asylum seekers’ claims regardless of their possession of UNHCR documents, whether through the development of a national screening mechanism that adheres to international standards or by allowing UNHCR access to detention centres.

“These mechanisms are especially important as asylum seekers currently face long waiting periods before obtaining UNHCR documents, which puts them at high risk of arrest and detention,” he said, referring to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees by its acronym.

The Malaysian Advisory Group on Myanmar was reportedly formed in March last year to serve as an independent body giving analysis regarding Myanmar matters to Malaysia’s government and the public.