Rights group Amnesty International voiced concern on Tuesday after Malaysian police detained more than 100 Rohingya asylum seekers at a UN facility in Kuala Lumpur.
The group had travelled by bus to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Unhcr) compound in the capital early Monday, after being threatened with eviction from their informal settlement in northern Penang state the previous day, according to local media reports and Unhcr.
Police rounded up 110 men, women and children and transported them by truck to national police headquarters on Monday night, before moving them on Tuesday to a “location designated by a non-governmental organization” elsewhere in the capital, authorities said.
“Malaysia cannot build a credible refugee protection system while simultaneously treating refugees as people to be rounded up, detained, and removed,” Amnesty International’s Malaysia branch said.
“Refugees and asylum seekers should be treated with dignity and in accordance with their human rights, as people who need protection,” it added.
Unhcr said it supported dialogue among stakeholders to find longer-term solutions to Malaysia’s refugee challenges.
The Rohingya, Myanmar’s mostly Muslim persecuted minority, face mounting pressure in Malaysia, including an online campaign that rights advocates say is fueling xenophobia and intimidation.
Malaysia currently hosts more than 215,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered with Unhcr.
Of these, more than 126,000 are Rohingya who fled persecution in Myanmar, making them Malaysia’s largest refugee community.
Despite sheltering one of Southeast Asia’s biggest refugee populations, Malaysia has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention and does not formally recognize refugee status.
According to the Unhcr, this leaves Rohingyas in Malaysia exposed to arrest, detention and deportation, and with limited access to work, schooling and healthcare.