<<previous | index | next>> Malaysia’s Response to the War in Aceh: Arrests and Deportation of Acehnese
After fighting resumed in Aceh, the Malaysian government quickly reiterated its position of refusing to recognize asylum seekers in Malaysia, including the new flows of Acehnese refugees to the country. Information Minister Khalil Yaacob added that Malaysia would deport all people from Aceh caught entering the country illegally, regardless of whether they claimed to be refugees fleeing fighting in the Indonesian province.27 The resumption by the Indonesian armed forces of military operations in Aceh sparked a dramatic increase in the flow of Acehnese to Malaysia seeking safety. According to UNHCR, 3,757 new cases of Acehnese asylum seekers were registered with the agency by the end of October 2003, compared with 633 new cases for the whole of 2002. Registered arrivals surged in the period around the declaration of martial law, with May 2003 having the highest one-month total of the year. The vast majority of the new arrivals were men between the ages of eighteen and fifty-nine, who made up 93 percent of newly registered Acehnese asylum seekers between June and October 2003.28 UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur reported a sharp increase in Acehnese seeking protection, though this number included both new arrivals and longer-term residents afraid to be sent back. While these figures demonstrate a marked increase in the number of Acehnese asylum seekers since the start of martial law in Aceh province, they tell only part of the story. Many more Acehnese have arrived in Malaysia but have not registered with UNHCR, in part due to the fear and difficulty associated with approaching the agency (see below). In September 2003 UNHCR officials acknowledged that they believed there were 8,000-9,000 people from Aceh in Malaysia who may be of concern to UNHCR.29 That number has undoubtedly risen since then. The August Arrests at UNHCR
In August 2003 Malaysian police arrested and detained at least 250 Acehnese asylum seekers outside the UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur. The arrests outside UNHCR are widely known among the Acehnese in Malaysia, and are frequently cited as the primary reason why Acehnese refugees are now unwilling to go to the UNHCR office to register or obtain a protection letter. The crackdown clearly targeted Acehnese asylum seekers, as the arrests occurred on two consecutive Tuesdays, the day of the week allocated by UNHCR to hear claims from Acehnese.31 (UNHCR has subsequently stopped this practice and allows Acehnese to make claims any day the office is open). One twenty-five-year-old man described the August 19 arrests to Human Rights Watch:
A thirty-two year old man was arrested the following Tuesday:
The August arrests have deterred many Acehnese from traveling to Kuala Lumpur and registering with UNHCR. One Acehnese man told Human Rights Watch:
Another man explained:
At least seventy of those arrested outside the UNHCR offices in Kuala Lumpur have already been deported back to Indonesia. Whether more such detainees are deported depends on negotiations between UNHCR and the Malaysian government. Some of those arrested outside the UNHCR office remain in immigration detention centers in Malaysia. There have been no further arrests outside of the U.N. agency’s office.
Malaysian authorities say that the seventy who were deported had “voluntarily” returned to Indonesia.36 Harsh conditions in the detention center and the prospect of long-term detention with no release undoubtedly were factors in the Acehnese agreeing to be deported. One former detainee, who managed to make his way back to Malaysia after deportation, explained to Human Rights Watch that he agreed to return to Indonesia because, while in detention, he was unable to provide for his family. He told Human Rights Watch:
In addition to strong evidence provided in refugee interviews to Human Rights Watch, statistics show a sharp decline in new registration of Acehnese after August 2003. In July UNHCR reported 1,478 new Acehnese registrants. In August, the month of the arrests, they fell to 791, and by September they were at just 282.38 This decline cannot be solely attributed to a decrease of new arrivals. Human Rights Watch was consistently told that new refugees were arriving from Aceh every day, and in fact interviewed many who had arrived in October and November 2003. Other arrests and deportationsIn mid-November 2003 Malaysia prepared to forcibly return eight Acehnese refugees, including a mother and her young child to Indonesia. All were holding temporary protection letters issued by UNHCR. Strong pressure from Malaysian and international NGOs helped bring attention to the case, and to reports of violence against the refugees, resulting in the Malaysian government agreeing to put the deportations on hold.39 This example, however, is not representative of the fate of other Acehnese refugees in Malaysia. For example, UNHCR reported that seven asylum seekers were sent home across the Straits of Malacca on September 5, 2003. Malaysia denied UNHCR access to the seven Acehnese asylum seekers in detention, all of whom had been interviewed by the agency in the previous two weeks. The deportations occurred despite appeals from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, for a moratorium on deportations of Acehnese, and just days before a high-level mission from the agency to Malaysia to discuss the subject.40 Lubbers said that the plans outlined in “persistent reports” ran counter to assurances provided by the Malaysian authorities, according to which the asylum seekers “would not be returned to a situation which could endanger their lives and well-being.”41 In a press statement issued from Geneva, UNHCR stated that it was “extremely concerned after learning that Malaysian authorities this morning deported seven asylum seekers who originated from the Indonesian province of Aceh, despite a request from the High Commissioner this week for a moratorium.”42 In mid-September 2003 a high level UNHCR delegation, including Jean-Marie Fakhouri, the director of UNHCR’s Asia-Pacific bureau, visited Malaysia to meet with the government about the August arrests and deportations. UNHCR publicly called for a moratorium on all deportations of the asylum seekers who had been arrested outside of the UNHCR office in August. Deportations of those arrested did cease, but the refugees remained in detention and to date have an uncertain status pending continued negotiations between UNHCR and the Malaysian government. A U.S. Congressional letter to the Malaysian government signed by eight members of Congress also raised concern at this “apparent violation of the principle of non-refoulement.” The letter added:
Despite international criticism and pressure, police raids on Indonesian settlement areas continue. No distinction is made between Indonesian undocumented persons, asylum seekers, and refugees. For example, Malaysian police raided an Indonesian settlement in Limau Manis near Kuala Lumpur on September 16, 2003, and bulldozed many homes. The police told the Associated Press that 167 migrant workers without valid work permits had been detained and would be deported. Eyewitnesses reported that there were many Acehnese among those taken away.44
In October 2003 Malaysian police raided an undocumented workers camp in Penang and again arrested a number of Indonesians, including thirty-three Acehnese. A Malaysian human rights organization, SUARAM (Suara Rakyat Malaysia, Voice of the Malaysian People), reported that four of them were believed to have been holding UNHCR-issued temporary protection letters. All those arrested are believed to have been taken to immigration detention centers for deportation.45 In January 2004, a Malaysian organization, Solidarity for Aceh, and the Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture (World Organization Against Torture), reported that at least forty Acehnese asylum seekers were arrested after Malaysian police raided a migrant community settlement in Kampung Sungai Nibong, Penang, on January 25, 2004. The groups reported that those arrested were at grave risk of deportation.46 On February 21, 2004, the Penang Support Group for Aceh reported ten Acehnese asylum seekers were arrested in a police raid at Bukit Jambul. The Acehnese were detained at the Penang Southwest Police District Office with the expectation that they would be later transferred to the Juru detention centre in preparation for deportation.47 The above evidence suggests that, although largely unreported, deportations of Acehnese are regularly taking place as part of broader deportations of all undocumented Indonesians in Malaysia.
After the August arrests outside of the UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur, UNHCR was unable to visit those arrested in August detained in Malaysia’s immigration detention centers. Of the 289 persons known to have been detained, it identified 182 persons, mostly Acehnese, who asked for UNHCR intervention, and UNHCR provided temporary protection letters to those who did not already have them. According to the U.S. Committee for Refugees, the other 107 persons at the centers either declined UNHCR assistance or had already been deported.48 Problems faced by Acehnese returned to IndonesiaHuman Rights Watch interviewed three Acehnese men who had returned to Malaysia from Indonesia after at least once previously having been arrested and repatriated from Malaysia. Two who had returned to Indonesia by boat told Human Rights Watch that Acehnese were separated from other Indonesians by authorities at the port of arrival, either Medan, North Sumatra (the main disembarkation point from Malaysia), or Dumai. One man was released due to the intervention of a relative in the police (as already recounted above), and the other claimed to be from another province. Neither knew the fates of those who were detained on arrival. Acehnese in Malaysia also reported rumors that some of those who had been deported had either “disappeared” or been killed before making it back to their families. The rumor of fifty decapitated heads of deported Acehnese asylum seekers in Lhokseumawe hospital was recounted by several refugees in Malaysia. Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm any of these reports. However, the rumors do demonstrate the level of fear felt by Acehnese in Malaysia, and their concerns over what will happen to them if they are returned to Indonesia. One man who was deported to Indonesia, and then made his way back to Malaysia, told Human Rights Watch:
26 “Malaysia says will deport fleeing Acehnese,” Reuters, June 3, 2003. 27 Ibid. 28 UNHCR, “Breakdown of Acehnese by Month/Year of Arrival,” October 20, 2003; UNHCR, “Summary Registration Statistics by Ethnic Origin, with Demographic Profile,” October 27, 2003. 29 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “Malaysia deports asylum seekers to Aceh despite UNHCR appeal,” September 5, 2003. 30 Human Rights Watch interview with twenty-two-year-old man [name withheld], Malaysia, October 26, 2003. 31 See Human Rights Watch, “Malaysia: Don’t Return Indonesian Asylum Seekers,” A Human Rights Watch Press Release, August 29, 2003. 32 Human Rights Watch interview with twenty-five-year-old man [name withheld], Malaysia, October 26, 2003. 33 Human Rights Watch interview with thirty-two-year-old-man [name withheld], Malaysia, October 27, 2003. 34 Human Rights Watch interview with thirty-year-old-man [name withheld], Malaysia, October 31, 2003. 35 Human Rights Watch interview with twenty-six-year-old man [name withheld], Malaysia, November 7, 2003. 36 Yoon Szu-Mae, “50 more asylum-seekers arrested in KL,” Malaysiakini, August 26, 2003; Baradan Kuppusamy, “Malaysia walks tightrope on Aceh refugees,” The Manila Times, September 8, 2003. 37 Human Rights Watch interview with a thirty-two-year-old man [name withheld], Malaysia, October 27, 2003. Accounts of abuse by Malaysian authorities, overcrowding, and inadequate humanitarian assistance in Malaysia’s immigration detention centers have been covered in previous Human Rights Watch reports. See Human Rights Watch, “Living in Limbo: Burmese Rohingyas in Malaysia,” A Human Rights Watch Report, Vol. 12. No. 4 (C), August 2000; Human Rights Watch, “’By Invitation Only:’ Australian Asylum Policy,” A Human Rights Watch Report, Vol. 14, No. 10 (C), December 2002. 38 Summary Registration Statistics by Ethnic Origin, with Demographic profile, July-September, 2003. 39 Amnesty International, “Fear of torture or ill-treatment/Fear of forcible return,” AI Index: ASA 28/028/2003, November 14, 2003. 40 UNHCR, “Malaysia deports asylum seekers to Aceh despite UNHCR appeal,” September 5, 2003. 41 UNHCR, “UNHCR Seeks moratorium on deportations from Malaysia,” September 4, 2003; “UNHCR concerned over plans to expel Aceh asylum seekers from Malaysia,” Agence France-Presse, September 5, 2003. 42 UNHCR Press Briefing, Geneva, September 5, 2003. 43 Congressional Letter to Dato Ghazzali Sheikh-Abdul-Khalis, Embassy of Malaysia to the United States, signed by representatives Patrick J. Kennedy, Christopher Smith, Lane Evans, Tammy Baldwin, Barney Frank, Dennis Kucinich, Eleanor Holmes-Norton, and Sherrod Brown, September 3, 2003; “U.S. Congress reps rap Malaysia on deportation of Aceh asylum seekers,” Agence France-Presse, September 4, 2003. 44 Yoon Szu-Mae, “Mass arrest at Kg Limau Manis, Putrajaya,” Malaysiakini, September 16. 2003; “Malaysian Police Raid Illegal Camp For Indonesian Workers,” Associated Press, September 17, 2003. 45 Susan Loone, “Police raid homes, arrest Acehnese in Penang,” Malaysiakini, October 18, 2003. 46 “Case MYS 300104 - arrest and risk of corporal punishment or deportation of forty Acehnese asylum seekers,” Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture, January 30, 2004; Yap Mun Ching, “More Acehnese allegedly arrested in dawn raid,” Malaysiakini, January 27, 2004. 47 “Urgent Alert: Acehnese Asylum Seekers Arrested in Penang,” Penang Support Group for Aceh, February 22, 2004. 48 “Malaysia Detains and Forcibly Returns Acehnese Asylum Seekers,” U.S. Committee for Refugees, Refugee Reports, Vol. 24, No. 7, October 2003. Of the 182 seeking UNHCR protection, 82 were in the Langkap detention center in Perak. The others were held in two detention facilities in Kuala Lumpur. 49 Human Rights Watch interview with twenty-five-year-old man [name withheld], Malaysia, October 26, 2003.
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