Scores die while held in camps
Refugees allege maltreatment
KUALA LUMPUR: More than 100 foreigners have died in the past two years in Malaysia’s immigration detention centres from various diseases and unknown causes, according to documents from the governmentfunded National Human Rights Commission reviewed by Reuters.
The toll, which has not been previously disclosed, is based on Malaysian immigration department data provided to the commission, which is known by its Malay acronym Suhakam. There were 83 deaths in 2015, and at least 35 in 2016 up to December 20.
It is unclear whether the death rate is higher than in neighbouring countries. Government officials in Indonesia and Thailand said they did not disclose such numbers. The rate is higher than in major industrialised nations such as the United States, which in the last financial year recorded 10 deaths in its immigration detention system.
More than half of the 118 dead are from Myanmar, the source for tens of thousands of refugees coming to Malaysia, including Rohingya Muslims escaping persecution by Myanmar’s authorities and its majority Buddhist population.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been a harsh critic of the Myanmar government and its de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi after a crackdown in October by Myanmar’s security forces led many Rohingya to flee across its borders amid multiple allegations of mass killings and gang rapes by troops. He has called for foreign intervention to stop the ‘‘genocide’’ in Myanmar.
Najib’s office did not return calls seeking comment.
‘‘The numbers are too many and are shocking and it calls for the overhaul of the system,’’ said Jerald Joseph, one of eight commissioners at Suhakam, which was established by the Malaysian parliament through an act in 1999 and is due to announce the numbers next week in its annual report on human rights issues.
He described conditions at the centres, some of which he has visited, as ‘‘appalling’’, and said the deaths should be investigated as a criminal matter. The illnesses that led to some deaths may have been caused or exacerbated by poor sanitation and food, physical abuse and a lack of medical attention, Joseph said, speaking on behalf of the commission. Malaysia’s home ministry, which oversees the immigration department, said it was trying to improve the conditions in the centres but that its budget was constrained.
‘‘I agree there is some overcrowding and the conditions are not ideal. We are always trying to improve the procedures, health conditions and management of these sites. The problem is we hit a budget brick wall,’’ said deputy home minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed in an interview.
Jazlan blamed overcrowding on the ‘‘never ending flow of people seeking better future in Malaysia.’’
The living conditions inside the Malaysian camps are grim — overcrowded, unhygienic and brutal — according to interviews with 13 former detainees, and 12 others who have visited the centres, including people from government agencies and rights groups.
Those who had been detained say they did not get adequate food, water or healthcare.
All the detainees interviewed also say they were beaten by guards at the camps or witnessed others being beaten. One former Rohingya inmate of the Lenggeng camp in the state of Negeri Sembilan said he witnessed detainees being beaten and saw them die when the resulting injuries were not treated. Reuters could not independently verify the accusations made by detainees, who all declined to be identified for fear of reprisals.