One year ago, the Malaysian government launched Baitul Mahabbah, an initiative to move children ages 10 and younger from regular immigration detention centers, known as depots, and place them in dedicated centers for children. There are now 170 children – some unaccompanied – in Baitul Mahabbah centers, facilities that do not provide a genuine alternative to detention.
Children are among the thousands of irregular migrants that the Malaysian government detains in conditions that put them at risk of physical abuse and psychological harm. In March, Human Rights Watch documented how Malaysia’s abusive and punitive immigration system violates international human rights law, including the international consensus that detention of children is never in their best interests.
For more than a decade, Malaysian officials have considered alternatives to detention, particularly for children, that would be noncustodial and community-based. The Malaysian home minister, Saifuddin Nasution, has said that children should not be detained in immigration depots. Yet the Baitul Mahabbah centers, set up by the Home Ministry, continue to deprive children of their liberty.
In August, I visited the Baitul Mahabbah center near the Kuala Lumpur international airport, which opened last year in a former school. There were approximately 50 ethnic Rohingya children, including some who were unaccompanied, detained at the center. They were being guarded by immigration officials and volunteer security corps members.
The Rohingya children and their mothers told me that conditions were better than in the main immigration depots, but they were unhappy that they were not allowed visitors. They also wondered when they would be allowed to leave.
Many of these women and children faced violence and deprivation in refugee camps in Bangladesh, and a system of apartheid in Myanmar. They risked their lives by taking a treacherous sea voyage to reach Malaysia. There are more than 190,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia, including over 109,000 Rohingya.
The Malaysian government does not allow UNHCR access to Baitul Mahabbah centers – nor any of the immigration depots – to review asylum claims. Meanwhile, it is detaining thousands of Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers indefinitely, because they cannot be deported.
Baitul Mahabbah should only be a temporary measure. The Malaysian government should focus on developing a plan, in coordination with civil society groups, that would see all children released from immigration detention.
