INDONESIA/MALAYSIA: ILLEGAL INDONESIAN MIGRANTS DEPORTED FROM MALAYSIA ARRIVE BACK IN INDONESIA

Record ID: 348894

  • Title: INDONESIA/MALAYSIA: ILLEGAL INDONESIAN MIGRANTS DEPORTED FROM MALAYSIA ARRIVE BACK IN INDONESIA
  • Date: 1st April 1998
  • Summary: LHOKSEUMAWE PORT, ACEH, NORTH SUMATRA, INDONESIA (MARCH 28-29, 1998) (RTV - NO ACCESS INDONESIA) 1. SV/SLV OF IMMIGRANTS DISEMBARKING INDONESIAN NAVY VESSEL (3 SHOTS) 0.14 2. SLV MAN ON STRETCHER BEING LOWERED FROM BOAT 0.17 3. SV INJURED MAN SITTING ON BOAT 0.22 4. SV IMMIGRANTS HAVING HANDCUFFS REMOVED (2 SHOTS) 0.30 5. SV INJURED
  • Embargoed: 16th April 1998 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LHOKSEUMAWE, ACEH, SUMATRA, INDONESIA /PORT KLANG, KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
  • City:
  • Country: ASIA Malaysia Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVAEZ3PJTD391FVNUVT53C7AX12V
  • Story Text: International human rights groups have expressed concern about the possible torture of more than 500 Indonesians expelled from Malaysia last week due to possible links to separatist groups.

    Hundreds of illegal Indonesian migrants deported from Malaysia arrived back in the northern Sumatran port of Lhokseumawe, Indonesia on Saturday (March 28) in the first stage of a mass repatriation programme.

    Controversy has broken out over the repatriation with supporters of some of the returnees and human rights groups claiming mistreatment by Malaysian and Indonesian governments.

    At least 42 of those who arrived in Lhokseumawe were treated for inujuries including gunshot wounds apparently sustained during riots at a detention camp in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur last week.

    Riots left at least eight illegal immigrants and one policeman dead.

    Many of the illegal immigrants are Acehnese who rioted over being sent back to northern Sumatra where they feared political persecution.Aceh province has waged a long-running separatist struggle with the Indonesian government.

    Legal aid lawyers in Lhokseumawe said they had been denied access to both the injured in the hospitals as well as those in good health.

    Speaking from Sweden on Monday (March 30), the Aceh/Sumatra National Liberation Front (ASNFL) said that at least eight deportees died on the way from Malaysia to Indonesia.

    Human rights groups backed these claims on Wednesday (April 1), saying that many of the alleged illegal immigrants had legitimate claims to political asylum in Malaysia.

    London-based Amnesty International said it was concerned that Acehnese shipped back to Sumatra after their expulsion from Malaysia were being mistreated.

    Amnesty International said the Acehnese who returned to Lhokseumawe on Saturday were reportedly detained at the Rancung military detention camp without access to local human rights lawyers.

    In a separate claim on Monday, Acehnese in Malaysia said that some of the Acehnese who were deported at the weekend by the navy were killed and others tortured by having their feet cut off.

    However the Indonesian military on Wednesday denied claims of mistreatment, saying former rebels who were returned to Indonesia would not be mistreated, adding that 24 had already returned and had been well treated.

    In Kuala Lumpur, 14 Acehnese remained held in a UNHCR compound claiming political asylum after breaking into the compound on Monday.

    They are believed to be part of a group of some 100 illegals who escaped from detention centres last week as the Malaysian authorities moved in to round them up for deportation.

    Malaysia plans to repatriate around 10,000 illegal Indonesian migrants in the next few weeks as part of a programme to crack down on the number of foreign workers as unemployment rises due to the region's economic downturn.

    Estimates of the number of legal and illegal Indonesian workers in Malaysia range from 500,000 to around one million, The Indonesian government has denied foreign journalists access to Aceh province to cover the arrival of the expelled Indonesians on national security grounds.


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