KL puts Acehnese refugees at risk with deportations: Report
KL puts Acehnese refugees at risk with deportations: Report
Agencies Kuala Lumpur/Jakarta
The Malaysian government is forcibly returning Indonesian refugees from Aceh province to Indonesia where their safety is at risk amid a continuing conflict there, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Thursday.
The report documents Malaysia's deportations of refugees and asylum-seekers from Aceh and the mistreatment of Acehnese refugees while in Malaysia, the New York-based group said.
The group accuses Malaysian authorities of violating their international legal obligations by failing to distinguish between Acehnese refugees fleeing conflict and other undocumented Indonesians in Malaysia.
Under international law, UN-recognized refugees cannot be deported against their will. But Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, and does not recognize political refugees.
"Acehnese are fleeing a brutal conflict, marked by massive human rights violations," said Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division.
"Instead of deporting, detaining and abusing them, Malaysia should recognize its legal obligations and offer them a safe place of refuge until it is safe to go home."
Malaysian officials weren't immediately available to comment on the report. But the government has repeatedly defended the deportations, saying that all Acehnese detained in Malaysia were illegal immigrants, and that they should be repatriated to deter more illegal immigration.
"The Malaysian government claims that Acehnese refugees are illegal immigrants," said Adams. "In fact, Malaysia itself is acting illegally by forcibly returning them to a place where their lives are in danger."
Indonesia last May declared martial law in Aceh and launched an all-out offensive aimed at crushing separatist rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
In a report last December, Human Rights Watch said Acehnese refugees in Malaysia had spoken of abuses against civilians by Indonesian security forces, including extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, beatings and arbitrary arrests.
Indonesia described the claims as baseless and said there had been no report of a new wave of refugees from Aceh to Malaysia.
Human Rights Watch says "thousands" of Acehnese have sought safety in Malaysia since the military operation began last year.
Once they reach Malaysia, however, Acehnese refugees regularly face abuse by Malaysian police including arrest, raids on refugee settlements and extortion, Human Rights Watch said.
"They burned eight huts and the canteen," one Acehnese refugee told Human Rights Watch. "I lost all my clothes, my passport, everything! Everybody ran. It was the Malaysian police."
GAM, which has also been accused of rights abuses, has been fighting since 1976 for independence for the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island. More than 12,000 people have died in the conflict, including at least 1,500 since last year - most of them unarmed villagers caught in army search-and-destroy raids, human rights groups say.
Wealthy, stable Malaysia has long attracted migrants, many fleeing poverty or violence, from around Southeast Asia. Though it relies heavily on foreign laborers for menial work, it has deported hundreds of thousands of immigrants in recent years amid claims of rising crime among migrants.