The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has said it is “shocked and deeply saddened” by the deaths of six Rohingya, including two children, who died on Wednesday in an escape this week from a temporary immigration detention center in northern Malaysia. The group was among 528 Rohingya people who fled the facility in the early hours of Wednesday morning after what authorities said was a riot. The UNHCR, which has an office in Kuala Lumpur, said in a statement late on Thursday, that it was also concerned about the incident that led to the escape.
Tens of thousands of Rohingya, a mostly Muslim minority who have long been persecuted in Myanmar, have sought safety in Malaysia with many risking dangerous boat journeys to get to the country following a brutal military crackdown in 2017 that is now the subject of an international genocide case. The UN refugee agency said it did not have any information regarding the incident or the individuals involved, and revealed that it had not been allowed to access any immigration detention centers in Malaysia since August 2019.
“This has unfortunately prevented UNHCR in seeing detained persons of concern in order to determine those in need of international protection and to advocate for their release,” the statement said, noting that there are “detained persons of concern, including vulnerable individuals, requiring our attention” in immigration detention centers across Malaysia. The six people who died were killed as they tried to cross the North-South Highway, the main road that links northern Malaysia to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. The immigration department said most of the group was rearrested hours after they escaped, but police continue to search for nearly 100 people who remain free.
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