Malaysia deports Myanmar refugees | Abroad

Immigration ignored a court order not to expel them. The group includes members of ethnic minorities who have been persecuted in Myanmar. Deportation to Myanmar, where the army seized power on February 1, could put them in grave danger.

Refugee status

Some of the deported Myanmar citizens are said to have UN refugee status. However, the UN has not been able to access detention centers in the country since August 2019. However, Malaysia says it concerns people who have violated immigration rules and not asylum seekers.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has canceled her plans to visit Myanmar. Instead, she met her military-appointed counterpart, Wunna Maung Lwin, in Thailand yesterday. She told the press that she was in “very arduous” talks with various parties, including the military and the CRPH, referring to the committee representing Bidaungsu Hlutau, which was set up by the ousted parliamentarians.

Rohingya

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has sounded the alarm for the Rohingya refugees who have floated on a boat in the Andaman Sea for fourteen days, without food or water for an extended period. According to Chris Liwa of The Arakan Project, a human rights organization focusing on the Rohingya, eight people were killed on the boat.

The boat has ninety people on board. Many patients suffer from severe dehydration. The boat left Bangladesh, where more than a million Rohingya live in refugee camps, on February 11 and had engine problems. Many Rohingya have been expelled from neighboring Myanmar due to a brutal campaign of violence. “India has a duty under international law to rescue them and provide them with security,” Liwa said. The Indian Coast Guard brought them food, water and medical aid this week. But at the moment they are still swimming in the sea. “