UN Expert Urges Malaysia to Stop Myanmar Repatriations
“I am gravely concerned the Government of Malaysia has begun to return 5,000 Myanmar nationals, including women and children, under a so-called ‘voluntary repatriation programme’ agreed with the military authorities in Myanmar,” Kelley Currie, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said in a statement.
Malaysia started returning an initial group of 1,476 people on Sept. 29, according to the statement.
Currie said the current circumstances create a “substantial” risk of refoulement and argued that the necessary conditions for a return that is “safe, dignified, sustainable, and genuinely voluntary” do not currently exist.
She cited continued armed conflict and widespread violence in Rakhine State, including abuses affecting the Rohingya population.
Currie also criticized a Sept. 28 Myanmar military airstrike on a crowded market in Pike Thae village in Kyauktaw Township, Rakhine State. The attack reportedly killed more than 50 civilians and left many others injured.
She called on Malaysia to consider the legal, humanitarian and practical requirements governing voluntary repatriation and to safeguard the human rights of all Myanmar refugees living in the country.
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