On a fateful Thursday, 131 primarily Rohingya men from Myanmar made their escape from the Bidor Immigration Detention Center located in Perak, Malaysia which resulted in one casualty. This was made public by Ruslin Jusoh, the Director-General of Malaysia’s Immigration Department, during a recent announcement.
Details about the unfortunate incident were disclosed by Perak police, who shared that a riot occurred within the detention center. An escapee was attempting to traverse a highway and was fatally hit by an ongoing vehicle. As an immediate measure, Director-General Jusoh dispatched 375 officers, soldiers, and voluntary reservists to aid in the search operations. They shared this information in an online briefing.
Malaysia has increasingly become a destination of hope for Rohingya refugees who are seeking to escape persecution in their home country, Myanmar, or the unfavorable conditions in refugee encampments in Bangladesh. This is a reflection of wider regional crises, including the 2017 military clampdown in Myanmar. However, it is noteworthy that Malaysia hasn’t joined the United Nations Refugee Convention, and it lacks a proper judicial framework to process asylum claims, as highlighted in this report.
This incident strongly parallels a previous case that transpired in 2022 wherein more than 500 Rohingya refugees fled from a detention facility in Penang state, thus leading to fatalities. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the year 2023 saw the highest number of deaths amongst Rohingya refugees at sea in almost a decade, as the data indicates.