Anwar has 'largely failed' in refugee policy, says Human Rights Watch

Source: Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: Anwar Ibrahim's government has so far failed to reform immigration policies related to the treatment of migrants and refugee communities, according to an international human rights watchdog.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Anwar had criticised the hardline approach taken by two previous "nationalist coalition" governments on refugees during his time as opposition leader.

HRW also said that PKR, which Anwar leads, had promised to ratify the United Nations' refugee convention which would allow the country to formally recognise refugees and their right to work.

However, the group said that Anwar, once a political prisoner, had fallen short of his commitments, maintaining the hardline stance on immigration enforcement of his predecessors.

"Since becoming prime minister in November 2022, Anwar has largely failed to uphold his reform pledges in service of maintaining his coalition.

"Little has changed under the new government led by former political prisoner Anwar," HRW said in the preface to its report titled "We Can't See the Sun - Malaysia's Arbitrary Detention of Migrants and Refugees".

HRW said during the period of political instability from March 2020 to November 2022, the government had used the Covid-19 pandemic to crack down on refugees and migrants.

Anti-migrant rhetoric and widespread raids on immigrants had persisted under Anwar's government, the group added.

"He tweeted in June 2021: 'I am shocked and appalled by the arrogant and isolationist rhetoric used by the home minister (Hamzah Zainudin) with regards to the request to observe immigration detention depots by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).'

"Raids on migrant and refugee communities and the ban on UNHCR access to immigration detention centres continue to the present," the group said.

HRW's report also revealed a slew of abuses in immigration detention centres across the country, detailing experiences by ex-detainees concerning instances of torture, among others, endured by refugees and asylum seekers.