KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 — The government should immediately release all underaged migrant children currently detained with their families by the Immigration Department, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today amid reports of high Covid-19 infection rates in the facilities.
The international human rights watchdog also pressed the government to allow representatives from the United Nations Refugee Agency regular access to the immigration detention centres.
“The authorities should urgently identify and release children along with family members and provide safe alternatives to detention to which humanitarian agencies have regular access,” it said in a statement.
Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director of HRW, also questioned the need to detain children, noting reports of overcrowded and unsanitary detention facilities for undocumented immigrants, which often include refugees.
“These vulnerable children, including many who likely fled atrocities in Myanmar, should be cared for, not treated as criminals.
“The spread of Covid-19 makes it even more urgent for the Malaysian government to reassess its practice of detaining migrants, including children,” he said in a statement.
He reminded the government of Malaysia’s commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) — which prohibits the detention of children for immigration reasons — and to protect the children from abuse and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Today also marks World Children's Day, which commemorates the Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the UN General Assembly on November 20, 1959.
HRW pointed to the 2019 UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, which reported that even under good conditions, detaining children exacerbates existing health conditions and causes new ones, including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and suicidal thoughts.
The study said detention also exposes children to the risk of sexual abuse and exploitation, even in countries that do not detain children with unrelated adults.
HRW said immigration detention centres should only be used as an “exceptional measure of last resort”, provided they meet international standards under the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
On October 26, the Home Ministry reported that 756 children were being held in immigration detention facilities nationwide, including 326 from Myanmar who are detained without parents or guardians.
This came after the authorities, since May conducted numerous raids on migrants under the government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Perikatan Nasional government also discounted the rights of refugees, with the Home Ministry stating that they have “no status, rights, or basis to present any demands to the government”.
Malaysia authorities have also denied the UNHCR access to immigration facilities since August 2019, which the agency claims leaves it unable to find out whether those detained have already been determined to be refugees or are entitled to refugee protection.
