MALAYSIA should step up diplomatic efforts to find new homes for Rohingya refugees abroad or give them the opportunity to temporarily contribute to the Malaysian economy before recruiting foreign workers from other countries.
Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said this in response to news that more than 500 Rohingya refugees detained at the Sungai Bakap Immigration detention depot in Kedah had escaped in the wee hours of Wednesday morning following a riot.
According to Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin, as of 7pm Thursday (April 21), 424 of the 528 Rohingya detainees have been re-arrested while 104 more are still at large. Six of them were killed after being hit by a vehicle on a highway.
“It is unfair and unreasonable for us to let them be detained for so many years,” Najib said in a Facebook post.
“From a humanitarian aspect, the Government needs to do something for this group of refugees if the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other countries still do not want to take them in.”
According to the Pekan MP, continuing to detain Rohingya refugees would only result in the Government having to bear the cost of their detention in immigration depot.
Previously, Subang MP Wong Chen had urged Putrajaya to implement better policies when it comes to refugees and asylum seekers following the breakout.
Wong also said that the authorities must ensure that captured detainees were not punished for fleeing, and called for Suhakam and UNHCR to be given access to the refugees and to inspect the depot.
Calling the breakout an “act of extreme desperation”, Wong noted that the breakout did not appear to be a planned accident with any external help as it appeared that all the refugees had wanted to do was to “get as far away from the Sungai Bakap detention centre as they possibly could”. – April 22, 2022
Photo credit: CNN
