The Immigration Department's move to go ahead with its deportation exercise despite a court order against it could amount to contempt of court, said the Bar Council's M Ramachevam.
In a comment to Malaysiakini, the Migrants, Refugees and Immigration Affairs Committee chairperson said the deportation should have been held off.
"The action taken to deport the Myanmar nationals despite the stay order may amount to contempt of court.
"Status quo should have been maintained until 10am tomorrow pending further orders from the court in respect of the court proceedings that have commenced," he said.
Immigration director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud said this evening that 1,086 Myanmar nationals - all undocumented - were sent home on three Myanmar navy ships today.
This morning the Kuala Lumpur High Court granted an interim stay against the department's plan to deport 1,200 Myanmar nationals until 10am tomorrow (Feb 24).
Ramachelvam said immigration would have been aware of the court order.
"The defendants would have been aware of the interim stay as they were represented by the Attorney-General's Chambers," he said.
He added that it was up to the applicants - NGOs Amnesty International Malaysia and Asylum Access Malaysia - to apply to the court to commence contempt proceedings.
The immigration department has yet to respond to Malaysiakini's request for comment over the deportation exercise.
Khairul insisted today that none of the 1,086 were ethnic Rohingya or asylum seekers.
However, UN refugee agency UNHCR said it could not verify this as it was not given access to the deportees. It previously urged Putrajaya to stop its deportation plans, concerned that women and children may be involved.
The deportation comes after the Myanmar military seized power from its civilian government.
Putrajaya had previously expressed "serious concern" over the coup.
Malaysia does not recognise refugees and regards the latter as undocumented migrants.
Despite the non-recognition, the country is home to an estimated 154,000 refugees from Myanmar, apart from the larger number of undocumented migrant workers. - Mkini
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