Putrajaya should not turn away Rohingya refugees who attempt to land on Malaysian shores, said Human Rights Watch (HRW).
In an article on its website, HRW said that the authorities should provide assistance and access to asylum to the Rohingya refugees. On June 8, Malaysian authorities detained 269 Rohingya refugees who had arrived on a damaged boat off Malaysia’s coast at Langkawi. A second boat with an estimated 300 Rohingya remained at sea near Thailand’s Koh Adang island, according to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).
“Southeast Asian governments are callously passing the buck on protecting Rohingya refugees desperate for sanctuary and a future after Myanmar’s military drove them from their homes with mass atrocities,” the article quoted Brad Adams, the Asia director of HRW.
It was reported that Malaysian officials who intercepted the boat carrying Rohingya on June 8 intended to return it to international waters, but a damaged engine prevented the pushback.
Nearly 50 refugees jumped off the boat and swam to shore, where they were detained, while the boat with the remaining passengers was towed to Langkawi. MMEA arrested them on arrival and has detained them at the Nation Building Camp centre.
The director-general of MMEA was reported as saying that only 70% of the detained Rohingya were able to walk when they arrived due to the harsh boat conditions and lack of adequate food and water.
Malaysian authorities have kept mum on calls from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees.
Malaysia’s Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob was reported as saying that Malaysia intended to return the detained Rohingyas to Bangladesh. However, Bangladeshi authorities have refused to take them, saying that they were not Bangladeshi citizens.
From January to March, many boats, each with hundreds of Rohingya refugees, left the overcrowded, flood-prone camps in Cox’s Bazar for Malaysia.
Over the past two months, Malaysian authorities have repeatedly turned away boats of asylum seekers attempting to land, leaving hundreds of Rohingya in perilous conditions at sea, contrary to international search and rescue obligations. Several boats returned to Bangladesh, with some refugees sent to quarantine in the camps while over 300 have been confined in dangerous conditions on the remote silt island of Bhasan Char.
“Under international law, public health measures must be proportionate, non-discriminatory, and based on available scientific evidence. Subjecting those who arrive to a period of isolation or quarantine may be reasonable. But the pandemic does not justify a blanket policy of turning away boats in distress, risking the right to life of those on board. Malaysia’s pushback policy also violates international obligations to provide access to asylum and not to return anyone to a place where they would face a risk of torture or other ill-treatment,” said HRW. – June 12, 2020
