'Judicial review of deportation order too late for dead UNHCR cardholder'

A Rohingya mother who died in detention in July was unable to avail herself of the services of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to verify her status as a legitimate holder of her UNHCR card issued in Indonesia, says lawyer M Ramachelvam.

Ramachelvam (above), who is representing her family, was granted leave to file a judicial review of an order to deport Khatijah Bashir Ahmad and her five children, issued by the High Court in Shah Alam yesterday.

However, he admitted that the progressive decision came a little too late for 35-year-old Khatijah, who succumbed to liver cirrhosis.

“Khatijah and her five children were issued UNHCR cards in Indonesia but were arrested upon arrival in Malaysia and have remained in detention ever since.

“The children, aged between seven and 18 years, continue to remain at the Beranang Millennium temporary depot in Selangor.

“None of them has been granted access to UNHCR officers to verify their status,” Ramachelvam stressed.

Ramachelvam, who was appointed by Khatijah’s husband, a UNHCR card holder who arrived in Malaysia in 2013, said Khatijah and her children came to Malaysia to be together as a family.

He said her children, who continued to be kept in the Immigration Department’s depot, should be entitled to protection under the UN Convention on Rights of a Child (CRC).

“The CRC, to which Malaysia is a party, prohibits the detention of children for immigration reasons,” he stressed.

Ramachelvam said he would file the application for a judicial review within the next few weeks so that Khatijah’s husband and their five children can continue to challenge the deportation order.

“The decision by the Immigration Department’s director-general to deport this family is perverse and has no justification.

“They did not fully investigate the facts of this case before ordering the detention and subsequent deportation.

“As Rohingyas fleeing genocide, they are entitled to asylum and should have been allowed to be processed by the UNHCR office here,” he explained.

In early September, Beyond Borders founder and president Mahi Ramakrishnan raised alarm about the Immigration Department’s plan to deport 135 Myanmar nationals who could be members of the civil disobedience movement.

Mahi said they faced possible torture, incarceration, or even murder by the ruling junta in Myanmar.

To her knowledge, the 135 Myanmar nationals have not been deported yet.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, in his address at the UN General Assembly in New York on Sept 23, estimated that Malaysia had accepted nearly 200,000 Rohingya refugees on humanitarian grounds.

He was keen for world leaders to address the root cause of the Rohingya crisis but lamented that the UN Security Council had washed its hands off the crisis in Myanmar and handed the matter over to Asean.

The UNHCR office in Malaysia has been denied access to detention centres in the country to interview refugees and asylum seekers since 2019.

However, in September, Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin encouraged all UNHCR cardholders to register with the ministry’s new Tracking Refugees Information System (Tris) for a MyRC card.

Shortly before that, National Security Council (NSC) director-general Rodzi Md Saad came under fire from organisations working for the protection of refugees when he proposed the UNHCR office in Malaysia be shut down, saying that local authorities could better manage the refugee situation without foreign interference.

Which made Amnesty International Malaysia declare: “Malaysia takes pride in sitting on the UN Human Rights Council, therefore it is at best bizarre and at worst disingenuous and harmful for the government to then frame the UN agency as ‘foreign interference’.”

Other organisations urged NSC to understand the difference between migrants and asylum seekers, and the country’s obligations to protect asylum seekers and refugees under international law, despite not ratifying the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

M'sia to continue fighting for important issues on global stage

PM raises Rohingya refugee concern at UN general assembly

Foreign Ministry to form policy on Rohingya children education

Rohingya crisis fund is 'well short' - UN refugee agency