APRRN calls on Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution to free children in Malaysia!

Bangkok, 4 September 2024

“While children are killed and maimed in Myanmar, Palestine, and other countries around the world, Malaysia keeps those who have fled locked up indefinitely for seeking safety in its territory. This is wrong and unacceptable and must be changed in law and practice.” APRRN’s Co-Secretary General, Hafsar Tameesuddin.

On September 4th 2023, the Home Minister, YB Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution, launched ‘Baitul Mahabbah’, an initiative which seeks to provide specialised accommodation for children in immigration detention. The Baitul Mahabbah centres are only open to 10 years old and under, with children 11 -17 years old excluded, remaining in immigration detention centres with adult detainees.

On the one year anniversary of the announcement of Baitul Mahabbah, APRRN calls for an end to Malaysian government’s detention of over 1,400 children and children held in these centres, These children are held in conditions that put them at serious risk of physical abuse and psychological harm. We are alarmed by Malaysian laws providing no legal limit on the length of immigration detention, leaving children at risk of being detained indefinitely.

However, the Baitul Mahabbah centres do not function as alternatives to detention. Despite some measures to improve conditions, the Baitul Mahabbah centres are gazetted as immigration detention centres, are run by staff with no training in child welfare and continue to deprive children of their liberty.

APRRN is alarmed that there is no known processing for release into the community of children in Baitul Mahabbah centres, only to return to countries where their lives are at risk. After one year of refugee children being held in Baitul Mahabbah facilities we encourage authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the extent to which these facilities and services were beneficial to children’s wellbeing as claimed.

APRRN encourages the involvement of the Ministry of Women, Family, and Community Development (MWFCD) during the evaluation and in the operations of Baitul Mahabbah. A partnership between MCWFCD and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) would enhance the credibility of assessment and improve the protection of the rights of children in Malaysia’s care. We remind authorities that many of these rights are outlined in Malaysia`s Child Act 2001 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Immigration detention and deprivation of liberty harms children mentally and physically. Clinical studies show the serious impact that even short periods of immigration detention can have on a child’s wellbeing, growth and development. Detention of any form is never in a child’s best interest and is a violation of their rights.

APRRN calls upon Home Minister, Saifuddin Nasution, to order exemption from arrest, and release children into the community. We encourage the Director General of Immigration, Ruslin Jusoh, to make use of his discretionary powers and order the release of children from Baitul Mahabbah and other immigration detention centres, into community-based programs. This can be done by working with child protection organisations who are able to provide case management support and linkage to the refugee communities.

Furthermore, we urge the minister to allow children access to UNHCR Malaysia in order to assess their need for international protection as refugees.

APRRN members in Malaysia stand ready to work with the Malaysian Government in realising true community-based alternatives to detention for children. We call on MOHA to continue the effort and establish a working group with key civil society members to develop and trial a pilot to release children from Baitul Mahabbah into community settings in line with the best interests of the child.

APRRN highlights that many countries around the world and within ASEAN are moving towards ending child immigration detention altogether. The ASEAN Declaration on the Rights of the Child in the Context of Migration and the accompanying Regional Plan of Action sets clear standards Malaysia as the incoming chair of ASEAN next year is expected to promote and uphold in its territory.

We alert the Malaysian public and government to Malaysia’s Child Act 2001 applicable to all children regardless of status and nationality highlighting that children need care and protection. We urge Malaysia as a current member of the Human Rights Council to uphold the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which has provided authoritative guidance that “the detention of children because of their or their parents’ migration status always constitutes a child rights violation and always contravenes the principle of the best interests of the child”. We remind Malaysia to uphold its pledge to “ensure that children grow and achieve their full potential in a family”.

APRRN strongly urges the Malaysian government to bring its practices, policies and laws up to global standards to:

● Release all children from all forms of immigration detention. Establish, scale-up and fund case management support for asylum-seeker, refugee, stateless and migrant children, and their families in community-based alternatives to detention.

● Strengthen partnerships with civil society organisations to develop or expand community-based alternatives to detention for children in line with commitments to the ASEAN Declaration on the Rights of the Child in the Context of Migration and its accompanying Regional Plan of Action.

● Allow independent monitoring of immigration detention conditions and unrestricted access by UNHCR, civil society and other relevant actors to all Baitul Mahabbah and immigration detention facilities and independent monitoring of detention conditions and people in detention.

● Pass legislation and guidelines to restrict the use of immigration detention for all child and adult asylum seekers, refugees, stateless persons and migrants to a measure of last resort.

● Follow through on UPR recommendations to Malaysia of January 2024, to provide appropriate legal status for asylum-seekers, refugees and stateless persons, who cannot return to their home countries and might otherwise have been detained for reasons related to their status.

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For further information or comments, please reach out to Lars Stenger, Network Coordinator, Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, at Lars@aprrn.org 

The Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) is a network of over 280 civil society organisations and individuals from 30 countries. We are committed to protecting and promoting the rights of refugees and other vulnerable groups on the move in the Asia Pacific.