Nothing to do with meddling, rights group tells home minister on deportation of refugees

Rights group Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) today took the home minister to task for telling the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and other rights bodies not to interfere in Malaysia’s affairs over the deportation of Myanmar nationals, saying Hamzah Zainudin had “entirely ignored” the real concerns at hand. 

LFL director Zaid Malek said that UNHCR, as a body tasked with the protection of asylum seekers and refugees, would intervene in the event of actions taken by governments that would cause them serious harm. 

“It is not an act of intervening in local affairs or limiting the powers of the government to protect its borders, as the home minister has claimed,” he said. 

Adding that UNHCR had raised the matter specific to the deportation of asylum seekers from Myanmar, he said it was “shocking” that Hamzah had failed to grasp the basic concept that asylum seekers and refugees are those who escape their home countries for fear of persecution, human rights violations, or genocide by their own governments.

“They do not do so willingly but rather from desperation based on a very real threat of harm to their well-being,” he said.

Hamzah had on Oct 27 told UNHCR not to interfere in Malaysia’s affairs following calls by the New York-based Human Rights Watch for the government to stop repatriating political asylum seekers as this would put their lives in danger.

He said the detention of foreigners and their deportation to their home countries meant that they had violated Malaysian laws. 

"Not just Myanmar or any particular country, but anyone from anywhere in the world who comes here and breaks our laws, we will send them back... when it’s time to send them back, we will.

"So, UNHCR, the United Nations, or anyone at all – if the people we detain entered the country legally but then violate our laws, we will send them back. No need for outsiders to interfere," he said.

He also said that “in terms of humanity”, the government would not send back people who might “disappear” in their country of origin. 

“We will not do things that can cause cruelty to individuals who are sent back," he said.

But Zaid said there had been no evidence of any checking process to ensure that asylum seekers and refugees are not deported to their home countries. 

“In fact, past conduct would indicate that there is no such system in place, as evidenced by the debacle of the mass deportation of over 1,000 Myanmar nationals back to their country despite the ongoing coup at the time which put them in extreme danger,” he said.  

He added that the government was bound by international law through the principle of non-refoulement to ensure that asylum seekers are not deported if there is a risk of persecution or inhumane treatment.

“The government should take heed when bodies such as UNHCR raises such concerns as it is in fact in the interest of our country to not violate international laws which may bring about adverse consequences to us,” he said.