Malaysia: migrants as criminals, detained for years in centers without contact with the outside world, exposed to abuse and mistreatment

ROMA – The Malaysian government detains around 12,000 migrants, of which 1,400 are children, and exposes them to the risk of physical and psychological abuse, reports Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a newly published report: “We cannot see the sun: the arbitrary detention of migrants and refugees”. The dossier documents abuses by the authorities in twenty detention centers spread across the country. The bottom line is that detained people, including minors, can spend months or even years in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions, vulnerable to harassment by guards, without any national or international monitoring. “The prison system is so degrading that it denies people the rights to freedom, health and due process,” explains Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at HRW.

Immigration law. Malaysian rules consider every irregular entry and stay in the country as a criminal offense and do not make any distinction between refugees, asylum seekers, victims of trafficking: in practice they do not consider the cause of migration when the border is crossed illegally. Furthermore, there is no legal limit to the duration of detention, so migrants risk being detained even indefinitely. From May 2020 to today, more than 45 thousand illegal immigrants have been arrested. The ex-prisoners spoke of inhumane living conditions in the centres, with overcrowded spaces, limited food supplies, lack of hygiene and health, and extremely rigid rules of conduct punished with equally severe treatment. “We were beaten if we asked for more food, if we took an extra glass of water or asked for a blanket for the cold,” said a Rohingya refugee who lived at the depot – one of the names used in Malaysia to identify migrant centers – from Belantik.

The abuse. Inmates are forced to answer some sort of roll call several times a day. If the guards decide that they must remain silent, still, and with their heads down, they must respect orders and not move even to go to the bathroom, otherwise they risk being punished. “If we made noise they hung us on the wall, forced us to do push-ups, to squat, to walk like ducks or to remain under the scorching sun for hours,” said a woman about the Tawau depot. People are being held without an opportunity to appeal: the government’s use of prolonged, unsupervised detention violates international human rights law which prohibits arbitrary arrest. According to testimonies collected and data found by HRW, mistreatment and inadequate medical care have caused hundreds of deaths in immigration facilities in recent years. One man said he was tortured together with thirteen other people for several days because they tried to escape: the guards beat them with bricks and truncheons, in the end two of the victims died from trauma.

Xenophobia and racism. In recent years, Malaysia has toughened its attitude towards migrants and xenophobic rhetoric is increasingly widespread. Government denies UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) access to detention centers since August 2019, so UNHCR cannot process asylum requests or identify people in need of international protection. Kuala Lumpur has not ratified the Geneva Convention and has no legal framework or procedure to determine refugee status and provide recognition and protection to asylum seekers.

I minori. Children detained in centers suffer the same abuse as adults: lack of medical care, inadequate food and mistreatment. Malnutrition is widespread. Although the government has discussed for several years – including at the United Nations Human Rights Council – the possibility of identifying alternatives to child custody, there has been little progress. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called for the gradual abolition of imprisonment for immigrants, recalling that those who migrate cannot be treated as criminals and that the arrest of migrants is a measure that should only be used “exceptionally, for a short period and only if justified by a legitimate purpose, such as documenting entry, recording requests and verifying the identity of people in cases of doubt”.