A growing number of immigrants from Myanmar are ending up stuck, often for months, in crowded detention centers in Malaysia designed to hold people for only a few weeks.
Almost 2,800 Burmese were detained at camps last month, more than double the 1,200 in January, partly because of a crackdown on human trafficking, a step-up in raids and a slow economy that leaves the migrants without jobs.
People from Myanmar, a desperately poor country with a military junta, are now the biggest group among the 7,000 foreigners at detention centers in Malaysia.
At a center near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, some 120 men sat in neat rows on the floor. Many had their legs drawn to their chests and all were barefoot. There was not enough space and not enough bedding.
“There is no soap for taking a shower, nothing. They don’t give us anything,” said Kyaw Zin Lin, 23, who said he fled to avoid being drafted into the Myanmar army. “Every day we eat the food just to survive ... They treat us like animals.”
“It’s very difficult to stay here,” said Aung Kuh The, a pale 26-year-old. “We have got a lot of problems. Some people, you know, we want to see the doctor but we don’t have the chance.”
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
One reason for the rise in detainees is a crackdown on trafficking. A report published in April by the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations cited the accounts of Burmese who said immigration officers turned them over to traffickers.
That practice has all but stopped, Myanmar community leaders in Malaysia say.
Now, though, the Burmese are trapped in detention. The Myanmar embassy often takes six months to register them for deportation and charges them 620 ringgit (US$180) — much more than neighboring Indonesia.
By contrast, detainees from other countries are typically deported within a week.
Calls to the Myanmar embassy were repeatedly put on hold and then unanswered.
About half the Burmese — those fleeing persecution — may qualify for UN refugee status, but that process takes up to four months. The others are economic migrants. Some 140,000 Burmese work in Malaysia, but foreign workers who are laid off lose the right to stay.
Some have spent more than six months in crowded, dirty detention centers. One man, whose brother was in detention for four months, said he would rather be sold to traffickers from whom he could buy his freedom.
“I prefer to be trafficked,” said the man, who would only be identified by his nickname, Ryan, to protect his relatives in Myanmar. “I don’t mind paying 2,000 ringgit.”
OVERCROWDED
Five of Malaysia’s 13 detention centers are overcrowded; four of the five have large Burmese populations.
Journalists accompanied the human rights group Amnesty International on a rare visit recently to three detention centers just south of Kuala Lumpur, the country’s biggest city.
At the Lenggeng Detention Depot, 1,400 people were crammed into dormitories meant for 1,200. Of them, about 300 were from Myanmar.
Hundreds of men jostled each other for room in the bare dormitories. One was sleeping on a stone ledge in a bathroom. Each dormitory was fenced by wire mesh and barbed wire, giving detainees just a few meters of space for walking.
“The detention centers we saw fell short of international standards in many respects, as the immigration authorities themselves acknowledge,” said Michael Bochenek of Amnesty International. “It’s [in] a facility of such size that infectious diseases are communicated readily.”
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS