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Burmese migrants stuck in Malaysia detention camps
Associated Press - August 17, 2009
Julia Zappei, Sepang (Malaysia) – A growing number of immigrants from Burma are ending up stuck, often for months, in crowded detention centers in Malaysia designed to hold people for only a few weeks.
Almost 2,800 Burmese were detained at camps in July, more than double the 1,200 in January, partly because of a crackdown on human trafficking, a step-up in raids and a slow economy that leaves the migrants without jobs. People from Burma, a desperately poor country with a military junta, are now the biggest group among the 7,000 foreigners at detention centers in Malaysia.
At a center near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, some 120 men sat in neat rows on the floor. Many had their legs drawn to their chests, and all were barefoot. There was not enough space and not enough bedding.
"There is no soap for taking a shower, nothing. They don't give us anything," said Kyaw Zin Lin, 23, who said he fled to avoid being drafted into the Burma army. "Every day we eat the food just to survive.... They treat us like animals."
"It's very difficult to stay here," said Aung Kuh The, a pale 26-year-old. "We have got a lot of problems. Some people, you know, we want to see the doctor but we don't have the chance."
One reason for the rise in detainees is a crackdown on trafficking. A report published in April by the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations cited firsthand accounts of Burmese who said immigration officers turned them over to traffickers.
That practice has all but stopped, Burmese community leaders in Malaysia say.
Now, though, the Burmese are trapped in detention. The Burmese embassy often takes six months to register its citizens for deportation and charges them 620 ringgit ($180), much more than neighboring Indonesia. By contrast, detainees from other countries are typically deported within a week.
Calls to the Burmese embassy were repeatedly put on hold and then unanswered. About half the Burmese – those fleeing persecution – may qualify for UN refugee status, but that process takes up to four months. The others are economic migrants. Some 140,000 Burmese work in Malaysia, but foreign workers who are laid off lose the right to stay.
Some Burmese have spent more than six months in crowded, dirty detention centers. One man, whose brother was in detention for four months, said he would rather be sold to traffickers from whom he could buy his freedom.
"I prefer to be trafficked," said the man, who would only be identified by his nickname, Ryan, to protect his relatives in Burma. "I don't mind paying 2,000 ringgit ($570)."
Five of Malaysia's 13 detention centers are overcrowded; four of the five have large Burmese populations, according to the immigration department. Journalists from The Associated Press accompanied the human rights group Amnesty International on a rare visit recently to three detention centers just south of Kuala Lumpur, the country's biggest city.
At the Lenggeng Detention Depot, 1,400 people are crammed into dormitories meant for 1,200. Of them about 300 are from Burma.
Hundreds of men jostle each other for room in the bare dormitories. One sleeps on a stone ledge in a bathroom. Each dormitory is fenced by wire mesh and barbed wire, giving detainees just a few meters (feet) of space for walking.
"The detention centers we saw fell short of international standards in many respects, as the immigration authorities themselves acknowledge," said Michael Bochenek of Amnesty International. "It's a facility of such size that infectious diseases are communicated readily."
Saw Pho Tun, a refugee community leader, said some immigration officers have singled out Burmese detainees for rough treatment, beating them and not allowing them medical assistance. Immigration officials deny beating detainees and say everyone has access to medical care.
On July 1, detainees at another center flung their food trays and damaged some of the mesh fence.
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