Immigration deports Myanmar nationals despite court order
The Immigration Department deported 1,086 Myanmar nationals today despite an interim stay by the Kuala Lumpur High Court to halt the exercise.
In a statement today, director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud (above) said the migrants - all undocumented - were sent home on three naval ships belonging to the Myanmar navy...
The Immigration Department deported 1,086 Myanmar nationals today despite an interim stay by the Kuala Lumpur High Court to halt the exercise.
In a statement today, director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud (above) said the migrants - all undocumented - were sent home on three naval ships belonging to the Myanmar navy.
They departed from the Lumut naval base in Perak.
“The immigration department has cooperated with the Armed Forces, especially the Royal Malaysian Navy, the National Task Force and the Myanmar embassy, to implement a repatriation programme for 1,086 undocumented Myanmar nationals today,” he said.
This morning, the court granted an interim stay against the government’s plan to deport the Myanmar nationals until 10am tomorrow (Feb 24).
This is after NGOs Amnesty International Malaysia and Asylum Access Malaysia filed an application seeking court intervention.
It was previously reported that 1,200 people would be deported, but the Immigration Department said today that only 1,086 deportees were involved.
Khairul reiterated today that none of today’s 1,086 deportees were Rohingya or asylum seekers.
“All of those who were sent home had agreed to return voluntarily without any coercion by any party,” he said, adding that the migrants deported today had been arrested in 2020.
Malaysiakini has contacted the department for comment.
UN refugee agency UNHCR previously called for a stop to the deportation exercise, expressing concern that some may be women and children who need international protection.
It also said it has been barred from entering Malaysian detention centres since Aug 2019 and was thus unable to identify which detainees were refugees.
READ MORE: UN says Malaysia should not deport refugees amid concern over Myanmar detainees
The deportation comes after the Myanmar military seized power from its civilian government.
Malaysia had previously expressed “serious concern” over the coup.
Malaysia does not recognise refugees and regards the latter as undocumented migrants.
Despite the non-recognition, Malaysia is home to an estimated 154,000 refugees from Myanmar, apart from the larger number of undocumented migrant workers.
Meanwhile, Khairul said today that the Home and Foreign Ministries were also trying to deport nationals from Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh and other countries.
The courts may have wanted to play to the gallery when it came to Human Rights and the Rights of Refugees in the country. We are not a signatory to such international treaties and who are these foreign NGOs who go around the world telling countries what they ought to do or otherwise? We are a sovereign nation and it is our government who decides on what is good for the nation. We already have thousands of Rohingyas from Rakhaine State here, what more with these folks? Have we been bothered to consider what impact it would make with our locals who already being hard pressed economically to now have to compete with these undocumented foreigners? Remember, the National Security Council is in charge of the nation now since we are in a state of emergency, it consists of the PM, DM, HM, Comm M, Armed Forces Chief, the IGP and the AG. So the DG of Immigration will only have to answer to them not the Courts.
Will the AG take contempt proceedings against the Immigation just like he did against mkini
This is real contempt of court. Let us see if the AG will bring a contempt case, or can someone else bring the case?
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