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24 February 2023
KUALA LUMPUR – Human rights groups have urged Malaysia to investigate conditions at migrant detention centres after the government said 150 foreigners, including seven children, died at the facilities in 2022.
Malaysia routinely detains foreigners without valid permits to remain in the country, including asylum seekers. It is home to millions of undocumented migrants and more than 100,000 Rohingya refugees.
Its detention centres are crowded and unhygienic, and detainees have inadequate access to food, water and healthcare, according to activists and Reuters’ interviews with former detainees.
In a written reply this week to a question in Parliament, Malaysia’s Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said seven children and 25 women were among those who died in detention in 2022.
He did not disclose the cause of deaths or the number of migrants in detention. Last July, Malaysia said there were 17,703 foreigners in its detention facilities.
“The fact that so many foreigners, including children, die in immigration custody is a scathing indictment of Malaysia’s failure to treat those they are holding as human beings who have rights,” said Mr Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.
Undocumented foreigners are typically detained for long periods while awaiting deportation, while refugees and asylum seekers who do not want to return home are held indefinitely.
Malaysia does not recognise refugees, and gives few rights to those given protection by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The UNHCR has been denied access to detention centres since August 2019, hampering efforts to release and resettle asylum seekers.
Amnesty International said restricted access and a lack of independent monitoring were fostering harm, and called for a transparent investigation into the deaths.
“It is the responsibility of the government to act openly and with urgency,” the rights group said.
Malaysia’s Home Ministry and its Immigration Department, which runs the detention centres, did not respond to requests for comment.
The country has increasingly come under scrutiny for its treatment of migrants.
In 2020, it arrested thousands of undocumented foreigners during the Covid-19 pandemic in what the authorities said were efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. It has also drawn criticism for deporting asylum seekers back to Myanmar. REUTERS
Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysia-pressed-to-probe-deaths-of-150-foreigners-including-7-children-in-detention-last-year
