A Rohingya teen refugee under detention has turned to the courts to quash her immigration offence case.
The 15-year-old’s legal team has gone to the Shah Alam High Court to nullify the case after the magistrate’s court in Petaling Jaya denied her bid to be released on bail pending disposal of an immigration offence charge.
Her counsel Collin Arvind Andrew told Malaysiakini the High Court is set to hear the application by Monday.
The lawyer said the teenager, who arrived in Malaysia unaccompanied, was arrested in April last year and later charged under Section 6 of the Immigration Act 1959/63, namely for the offence of not having valid travel documents.
His client has been held at the Kajang Prison since last year.
“She is a 15-year-old asylum seeker registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
“Initially, she was charged at (magistrate’s) court as an adult. But following a dental report which showed she is 15, she was recharged as a child instead,” he said.
Collin said that the basis of their application is that the immigration charge is defective and baseless for violating the fourth preamble (mukadimah) of the Child Act 2001 and Article 22 of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
He explained that both laws provide safeguards to Rohingya children seeking asylum from persecution.
Article 22 states that a child or young person is a refugee if they had to leave their country to escape war, persecution or natural disaster.
The Rohingya ethnic group has been the target of a military crackdown by Myanmar’s authoritarian regime that drove vast numbers of them out of the country’s Rakhine state.
A large number of these stateless people were forced to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, India, China, and Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia. - Mkini
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