Rights groups in Malaysia are calling for the release of thousands of detained refugees and asylum-seekers, after a deadly incident in the northern state of Penang April 20. Six Rohingya refugees were reportedly struck by vehicles and killed when hundreds fled a detention center after breaking through barriers and attempted to escape across an adjacent highway. “There is no discernible reason as to why so many of them were cramped into a makeshift depot in the first place,” stated advocacy group Lawyers for Liberty. Malaysia has long been a destination for Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar, but the government has cracked down on asylum-seekers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
From The New Humanitarian, April 22
See our last report on the Rohingya genocide.
Photo: Hasnoor Hussain/TNH
Malaysia: one dead in mass escape from detention center
Malaysia’s Immigration Department, announced Feb. 1 that 131 primarily Rohingya men from Myanmar escaped from the Bidor Immigration Detention Center in Perak, Malaysia, with one being killed. (Jurist)