23 February 2021
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL MALAYSIA AND ASYLUM ACCESS MALAYSIA
MEDIA QUOTE
Responding to the news that the High Court has granted a one-day stay to the government’s planned deportation of 1,200 individuals to Myanmar pending a judicial review, Katrina Jorene Maliamauv, executive director of Amnesty International Malaysia said:
“Amnesty International Malaysia and Asylum Access Malaysia welcome the decision to stay the planned deportation of 1,200 individuals to Myanmar that include valid UNHCR document holders, asylum seekers and children separated from their parents still in Malaysia.
In light of the court ruling, the government must respect the court order and ensure that not one of the 1,200 individuals is deported today. Instead, it must grant access to UNHCR to all 1,200 individuals and all immigration detention centres in general, which the government has denied since August 2019. This would enable the UN agency to verify asylum claims and identify refugees already registered.
It’s important to note that the stay of execution granted by the court does not mean the 1,200 are safe from being deported. They are still facing life-threatening risks. The judicial review will proceed tomorrow, 24 February at 10am. We urge the government to reconsider its plans to send this group of vulnerable people back to Myanmar, where human rights violations are currently dangerously high.”
For more inquiries, contact Brian Yap at [email protected] or Elliott Fox at
[email protected]