MIGRANT DETAINEES LOCKED ‘IN HELL’
Conditions in holding centres led to the deaths of 149 Indonesians in 18 months, rights groups say
Rights groups have accused Malaysian immigration authorities of causing the deaths of 149 Indonesian citizens, who were subjected to allegedly brutal conditions while held at detention depots over the past 18 months.
In a report titled “Like in hell”, Indonesian NGOs said there was a gross lack of concern for the well-being of detainees from officers in charge of the facilities in the state of Sabah on Malaysian Borneo, where up to 260 people – including children – were allegedly squeezed into windowless cells about the size of a badminton court, equipped with just three toilet bowls.
In one instance, depot officers had allegedly left a detainee named Nathan, who had Down syndrome and was in his 40s, to die by offering no health support even though he had been sick for an extended period, according to Abu Mufakhir. He is an activist with Koalisi Migran Buruh Berdaulat, or Coalition of Sovereign Migrant Workers, which prepared the report.
“Several times the officers made light of Nathan’s condition by saying ‘you can still hang on right?’, and only giving him [Paracetamol],” Abu said.
Nathan died at the Tawau detention centre in March. The cause of death was not stated in his death certificate.
The death toll cited in the report was based on data provided to the coalition by Malaysia’s embassy in Jakarta, which reported 2,191 deportations between January 2021 and June 24 this year.
Abu said another detainee, Aris bin Siang, died in September at the Tawau centre after allegedly being denied medical treatment, despite having lost consciousness several times during his six months in detention.
“Six per cent of those detained died. This is not something that can happen in a normal setting,” Abu said. “No clean water, the food is atrocious, how can people not die when they only get two to three hours of sleep a day?”
Officials with the immigration department did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
The NGO also highlighted an outbreak of scabies among the detainees, similar to the situation reported by Malaysian news portal Malaysiakini on Chinese nationals detained in Johor who developed “boils and skin ulcers” – including on their genitals – that did not subside even five months after being released.
The Indonesian report claimed that when detainees asked immigration officers for medication, they were mockingly told to bring their hands to their chest and start scratching. “There, that’s the cure,” they were told.
Malaysia’s home ministry, which oversees the immigration department and its operations, has since 2019 barred outside access to the country’s detention centres, including to the United Nations refugee agency.
Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on the situation in Myanmar, said that on a recent visit to Malaysia he was denied access to the depots to meet Myanmese refugees there, and got no response to letters asking the home ministry for a meeting.
“I am deeply concerned about reports that hundreds of children may be in these facilities, including child victims of trafficking. Children should never be placed in migration detention facilities,” Andrews had said.
Rohingya refugees in depots near Kuala Lumpur raised similar complaints about their treatment while in detention, which largely corresponded with what the Coalition of Sovereign Migrant Workers wrote in its report.
Rohingya refugee Abdul Qahhar, who was detained for two years, said the detainees were only allowed one set of clothes throughout their time at the depot. “I saw one person beaten up by immigration officers for having two T-shirts,” he said when contacted.
Allegedly appalling conditions at a detention centre in the northern state of Kedah sparked a riot this year that led to at least 520 people breaking out.
Jerald Joseph, a former commissioner with the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam), said the organisation had received regular complaints of alleged torture inside immigration depots.
“Malaysian authorities in the past believe that whipping detainees will deter those who enter the country without documents,” said Jerald, who was a panel speaker at the launch of the coalition’s report.
Activist Abu suggested that while it was easy for Malaysia to provide clean water and adequate toilets in the depots, immigration officials used the poor conditions as a deterrent.
“They create these conditions to create terror, so when the detainees are released they will go back and tell others about it,” he said.