“We Can’t See the Sun”: Malaysia’s Arbitrary Detention of Migrants and Refugees

By Shayna Bauchner

The Malaysian government is currently detaining about 12,000 refugees and migrants, including over 1,400 children, in dozens of immigration detention centers across Malaysia in conditions that put them at serious risk of physical abuse and psychological harm. Malaysian law makes all irregular entry and stay in the country a criminal offense, while placing no legal limit on the length of immigration detention, leaving migrants at risk of being detained indefinitely. “We Can’t See the Sun” documents Malaysia’s use of prolonged, judicially unsupervised immigration detention in violation of international human rights law. Based on interviews with former detainees as well as family members, humanitarian aid staff, and former immigration officials, the report details the authorities’ punitive and abusive treatment of undocumented migrants and asylum seekers. Immigration detainees may spend months or years in overcrowded, unhygienic conditions, subject to degrading treatment and abuse by guards, without domestic or international monitoring. Both ill-treatment and inadequate medical care have led to hundreds of deaths in immigration detention facilities in recent years. Human Rights Watch calls on the Malaysian government to reduce its reliance on immigration detention and move toward abolishing it entirely. Authorities should urgently stop detaining refugees, children, trafficking victims, and other vulnerable migrants for immigration related reasons. Malaysia should pursue community-based alternatives to detention that would not only counteract abusive and unnecessary immigration detention, but also make the immigration system more cost-effective, efficient, and humane.

New York: Human Rights Watch, 2024. 66p