KL mulls temporary stay for Acehnese

KL mulls temporary stay for Acehnese

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia is reviewing plans to deport some 250 detained Acehnese asylum seekers and may grant them temporary stay, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said on Thursday.

Although it is not Malaysia's policy to protect asylum seekers, Abdullah said the situation of the migrants from the war-torn Indonesian province of Aceh has to be given serious consideration.

"We are considering the possibility of giving them temporary stay but this is still uncertain. It needs serious consideration," he told reporters after opening a two-day Southeast Asian agricultural ministerial meeting.

"We have to get a report from the police about the status of those who are arrested, who they are."

Abdullah, who is also the home minister, was reported saying on Wednesday that Malaysia's stand on the Acehnese asylum seekers would be no different from that on other illegal immigrants, and they would be deported.

The Acehnese, including women and children, were detained on Tuesday outside the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Kuala Lumpur.

They are currently held in the Langkap detention center in northern Perak state, which is opposite Aceh across the narrow Malacca Strait.

The UNHCR has expressed alarm at Malaysia's "unprecedented action."

It urged the government to free the detainees and issue them temporary protection letters, saying refugees were not illegal immigrants under international law.

"We never send people to conflict areas," Abdullah said when asked about the UNHCR's statement.

He said Malaysia's policy has always been to deport all illegal immigrants but noted it has also helped UNHCR send refugees to third countries for resettlement.

The UNHCR has not made any formal request to the government to free the Aceh migrants but the UN body would be given access to them if it wanted, he added.

The UN refugee body has suspended registering new applicants at its Kuala Lumpur office because a heavy police presence is scaring away potential asylum seekers, a senior official said on Thursday.

Senior UN office Even Ruth said Malaysian police had been deployed outside the UNHCR for several hours each day since Tuesday.

"We cannot function when we have the police right outside our door. We have suspended operations over the past few days and we will review our position daily, depending on the police action," Ruth told The Associated Press.

The UN office accepts hundreds of applications for refugee status from people who come to Malaysia -- one of Southeast Asia wealthiest countries -- from poorer countries in the region, including Myanmar, Indonesia and Cambodia.

Thousands of people from Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam fled to Malaysia to escape years of bloody separatist fighting at home that has killed about 12,000 over the past decade.

Malaysia is also home to thousands of Rohinga Muslim minority from military-ruled Myanmar who enter the country illegally to escape persecution in their home country, also known as Burma.

According to international law, people granted refugee status cannot be deported against their will. Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and does not recognize political refugees. However, the UN office said that Malaysia is also bound by an international obligation not to deport immigrants to conflict regions even though it is not a signatory to the UN convention on refugees.