Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CU)_The officials of Malaysia and Myanmar confirmed that the military government of Myanmar has agreed to send three navy ships to pick back the detained Myanmar nationals in Malaysia. Hence, Malaysia will hand back 1,200 detained Myanmar nationals to the military government. The news sources said that last week Myanmar through its Kuala Lumpur embassy agreed to bring home their citizens detained in Malaysian immigration centers.
Usually, the detention centers house asylum-seekers and refugees. It also hoses people without proper visa or documentation in Malaysia. Malaysia does not officially accept refugees, and they consider them as illegal migrants. The officials did not answer to questions as to whether there were refugees among those being deported. Members of the Chin, Kachin and Muslim Rohingya groups escaping ethnic strife and persecution by the military in Myanmar have also been detained in the past.
The reports of the U.N refugee agency UNHCR say that Malaysia houses more than 154,000 asylum seekers from Myanmar, and thousands of migrant workers are also residing in Malaysia. According to the news sources, Myanmar had agreed to take back only its citizens. The sources also informed that navy ships would arrive in Malaysia on February 21 and leave two days later carrying its detained nationals.
Khairul Dzaimee Daud, Malaysia’s Director-General of Immigration, and Win Min Soe, a labour attache at the Myanmar embassy, also confirmed the news, saying that the officials had decided to hand the detainees over to the Myanmar navy. He said, “Yes we have agreed. All of them are from immigration depots”.
James Bawi Thang Bik of the Kuala Lumpur-based Alliance of Chin Refugees requested the Malaysian authorities to collaborate with the UNHCR to decide if undocumented refugees were among those to be deported. He said, “Refugees are in danger of being sentenced to jail and persecuted if they are sent back to Myanmar”.
