By Danial Azhar and Rozanna Latiff
KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 (Reuters) – Malaysian authorities detained more than 100 Rohingya Muslim asylum seekers on Monday who had gathered outside the U.N. refugee agency in Kuala Lumpur, saying they were seeking protection after being evicted from their homes.
All of the refugees outside the UNHCR were taken away with their belongings in four police trucks at around 8:30 p.m. (1230 GMT), according to Reuters witnesses at the scene.
A police official, who declined to be identified, said they were being taken to police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur for further checks.
The refugees, who included women and children, said they were driven out of their homes by local residents in the northern state of Penang on Sunday and had traveled to the Malaysian capital on buses overnight to seek assistance on resettlement from the UNHCR.
Penang police said the Rohingya “voluntarily moved” to Kuala Lumpur with the assistance of state and federal authorities, including the national security council.
“This transfer was carried out due to economic and territorial competition that arose following an increase in the Rohingya population in the area,” Seberang Perai Utara district police chief Anuar Abdul Rahman said in a statement.
The evictions came amid a rise in online hate speech and misinformation targeting the Rohingya since May that has led to greater harassment and scrutiny of the community, including widespread school closures.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Monday the gathering outside the UNHCR building had raised concerns from the public, and warned that anyone without proper permits would be detained by immigration authorities.
“No one has the right to take over any part of the city,” he said in a video posted on social media.
Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said Rohingya refugees in Malaysia live under constant threat of arrests and raids in a climate of fear that has only gotten worse due to the surge of online hate directed towards them.
“The Malaysian government should prioritize protecting refugees who have been evicted from their homes instead of terrifying them further by detaining them,” she said.
Around 126,000 Rohingya Muslims were registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia as of the end of February, according to the agency’s website, though rights groups say many more remain undocumented.
UNHCR SAYS IT IS CONCERNED BY ONLINE HATE SPEECH
Syed Kasim, one of the Rohingya refugees, said he had arrived with his wife and children at the UNHCR building in the early hours of Monday but the group had received no assistance from any authority.
“Nobody helped (with) our problem, nobody understands,” he said, adding he had been living in Malaysia for 20 years.
The UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It told Reuters on Friday that it was concerned by rising online hate speech, disinformation and dehumanising narratives targeting Rohingya and other refugees, which it said could fuel harassment and discrimination offline.
Though it is not a signatory to the U.N. refugee convention and regards asylum seekers as illegal migrants, Muslim-majority Malaysia has long been seen as a safe haven for Rohingya fleeing persecution in largely Buddhist Myanmar.
That changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Rohingya were accused of spreading the virus, disrespecting cultural norms and competing with locals for jobs.
(Reporting by Danial Azhar and Rozanna Latiff; Editing by David Stanway and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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