Rights group urges Malaysia not to deport Uygur migrants to China
Kualal Lumpur-based Suaram asks Malaysia's government not to deport 155 ethnic Uygurs, including 76 children, who were discovered in the country illegally by immigration officials
PUBLISHED : Monday, 06 October, 2014, 1:20pm
UPDATED : Monday, 06 October, 2014, 1:20pm
Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur
Suspected Uygurs from Xinjiang sit inside a temporary shelter after they were detained near the Thailand-Malaysia border in this file picture from March. Photo: Reuters
A Malaysian human rights group called on the government on Sunday not to forcibly deport 155 Chinese ethnic Uygurs reported to be in the country illegally, amid concerns for their fate in China.
Malaysian media reported on Friday that the Uygurs, including 76 children, were found in a pair of cramped apartments in the capital Kuala Lumpur during a raid two days earlier by immigration authorities.
The Malaysian government, which has sought closer trade ties with Beijing, came under criticism 18 months ago from international human rights groups and the UN refugee agency for sending six Uygurs back to China in an earlier case.
Malaysian rights group Suaram said there was concern that deporting the Uygurs “might put their life at risk, especially since there are 76 children involved”.
Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN’s key refugee treaty, but the government is bound by international principles against deporting “persons to places where they may face persecution,” Suaram said.
Uygurs are a Turkic-speaking and predominantly Muslim minority in China’s remote northwestern Xinjiang region. Many allege decades of political and religious repression by China.
Xinjiang tensions have soared amid a wave of violence over the past year, including deadly attacks on civilians, which China blames on “terrorists”.
A Malaysian immigration department official reached on Sunday declined to comment.
Malaysia is a major trans-shipment point on regional refugee and people-smuggling routes.
Authorities in Muslim-majority Malaysia have expressed growing alarm over reports that scores of its citizens had gone to Syria to take part in the civil war there, prompting fears they could join the radical group Islamic State and import extremist ideas on their return home.
Similar fears have been expressed in neighbouring Indonesia.
Indonesian police said in mid-September that they had arrested four Uygurs suspected of being linked to Islamic State.
Suaram said any detained Uygurs should have their cases adjudicated by Malaysian courts, and urged the government to work with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on the matter.
A UNHCR spokeswoman said the agency was still seeking information from authorities on the report of the 155 Uygurs and declined to comment.
Malaysia deported six Uygurs in December 2012 while the UNHCR was processing their refugee claims, sparking an outcry.
It deported an earlier batch of 11 Uygurs in 2011, saying they were involved in a human-smuggling syndicate.
