A LAWYERS’ group urges Putrajaya to release the more than 700 children in Immigration detention centres nationwide.

Lawyers for Liberty coordinator Zaid Malek said the government was putting these detained children at risk due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It is unfathomable as to why the authorities deem it fit and proper to detain hundreds of migrant and refugee children, most of whom are detained without guardians, in overcrowded detention centres during a worldwide health pandemic,” he said in a statement today.

Lawyers for Liberty was responding to a parliamentary written reply by the Home Ministry that there are 756 children in Immigration detention centres as of October 26.

Zaid said it was alarming that 326 of those children were Myanmars detained without guardians.

“Whilst not explicitly stated, it could reasonably be presumed that most, if not all, of these children are Rohingyas, meaning that the authorities have inexplicably detained children of refugees and asylum seekers,” he said.

He said the detention of these children was inhumane.

“These children must not be treated as criminals as they could not have entered the country on their own volition and are entirely victims of circumstance.

“We, therefore, strongly urge the government immediately release these children from detention into the care of their parents, guardians or the appropriate welfare authorities.”

He said Malaysia, being a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), has a duty to ensure that the best interest of the child must be a primary consideration.

Zaid said the government was willfully putting these vulnerable children at increased risk of Covid-19 infection, breaching its obligation under the CRC.

He said the authorities must halt action against migrants while Covid-19 remains a viable threat, and release all refugees and asylum seekers currently in detention. – November 6, 2020.