The Immigration Department deported 1,086 Myanmar nationals today despite an interim stay by the Kuala Lumpur High Court to halt the exercise.
In a statement today, director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud (above) said the migrants - all undocumented - were sent home on three naval ships belonging to the Myanmar navy.
They departed from the Lumut naval base in Perak.
“The immigration department has cooperated with the Armed Forces, especially the Royal Malaysian Navy, the National Task Force and the Myanmar embassy, to implement a repatriation programme for 1,086 undocumented Myanmar nationals today,” he said.
This morning, the court granted an interim stay against the government’s plan to deport 1,200 Myanmar nationals until 10am tomorrow (Feb 24).
This is after NGOs Amnesty International Malaysia and Asylum Access Malaysia filed an application seeking court intervention.
Khairul reiterated today that none of today’s 1,086 deportees were Rohingya or asylum seekers.
“All of those who were sent home had agreed to return voluntarily without any coercion by any party,” he said, adding that the migrants deported today had been arrested in 2020.
Malaysiakini has contacted the department for comment.
UN refugee agency UNHCR previously called for a stop to the deportation exercise, expressing concern that some may be women and children who need international protection.
It also said it has been barred from entering Malaysian detention centres since Aug 2019 and was thus unable to identify which detainees were refugees.
The deportation comes after the Myanmar military seized power from its civilian government.
Malaysia had previously expressed “serious concern” over the coup.
Malaysia does not recognise refugees and regards the latter as undocumented migrants.
Despite the non-recognition, Malaysia is home to an estimated 154,000 refugees from Myanmar, apart from the larger number of undocumented migrant workers.
Meanwhile, Khairul said today that the Home and Foreign Ministries were also trying to deport nationals from Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh and other countries. - Mkini
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