UN urges Malaysia to stop deporting Myanmar refugees back home
UN refugee agency says hundreds of Myanmar nationals have been sent back against their will in violation of international law
25 October 2022 - 18:01
byReuters
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The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) urged Malaysia on Tuesday to stop deporting refugees back to Myanmar, saying it had received reports of hundreds of such cases over the past two months.
The deportations, which included former navy officers seeking asylum, expose those sent away to danger and are a violation of the international law on non-refoulement, according to UNHCR, referring to a law that protects refugees or asylum seekers from being deported.
“In the last two months alone, hundreds of Myanmar nationals are reported to have been sent back against their will by the authorities,” UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told a Geneva press briefing. “People cannot be returned to places where they face threats to their life and liberty and face harm and danger.”
The latest incident involving an asylum seeker being sent back to conflict-torn Myanmar occurred on October 21, Mantoo added, despite intervention by the UNHCR with the authorities.
She had no further information on what happened to the deportees upon arrival.
Myanmar’s junta spokesman and Malaysia’s home and foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Myanmar’s embassy in Malaysia previously said in a post on Facebook that 150 Myanmar nationals were deported by plane on October 6 in co-operation with Malaysian immigration authorities. It did not mention that the group included former navy officers.
Myanmar has been gripped by fighting since the army overthrew an elected government in early 2021. Resistance movements, some armed, have emerged across the country, which the military has countered with lethal force.
The junta has arrested thousands of people, including Nobel laureate and deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, along with many bureaucrats, students, journalists and others in an attempt to smother dissent.
So far, more than 150,000 refugees and asylum seekers, including many ethnic Rohingya Muslims, have fled to neighbouring Malaysia.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
UN urges Malaysia to stop deporting Myanmar refugees back home
UN refugee agency says hundreds of Myanmar nationals have been sent back against their will in violation of international law
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) urged Malaysia on Tuesday to stop deporting refugees back to Myanmar, saying it had received reports of hundreds of such cases over the past two months.
The deportations, which included former navy officers seeking asylum, expose those sent away to danger and are a violation of the international law on non-refoulement, according to UNHCR, referring to a law that protects refugees or asylum seekers from being deported.
“In the last two months alone, hundreds of Myanmar nationals are reported to have been sent back against their will by the authorities,” UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told a Geneva press briefing. “People cannot be returned to places where they face threats to their life and liberty and face harm and danger.”
The latest incident involving an asylum seeker being sent back to conflict-torn Myanmar occurred on October 21, Mantoo added, despite intervention by the UNHCR with the authorities.
She had no further information on what happened to the deportees upon arrival.
Myanmar’s junta spokesman and Malaysia’s home and foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Myanmar’s embassy in Malaysia previously said in a post on Facebook that 150 Myanmar nationals were deported by plane on October 6 in co-operation with Malaysian immigration authorities. It did not mention that the group included former navy officers.
Myanmar has been gripped by fighting since the army overthrew an elected government in early 2021. Resistance movements, some armed, have emerged across the country, which the military has countered with lethal force.
The junta has arrested thousands of people, including Nobel laureate and deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, along with many bureaucrats, students, journalists and others in an attempt to smother dissent.
So far, more than 150,000 refugees and asylum seekers, including many ethnic Rohingya Muslims, have fled to neighbouring Malaysia.
Reuters
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