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.