Suffer Little Children

Last year, we read with disbelief as news broke of how the Trump-era US gomen had forcibly separated hundreds upon hundreds of defenceless migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border via the stupid “zero-tolerance” policy.

You don’t have to be a parent to imagine the agony of having your child ripped away from your arms and sent god knows where as you face an uncertain future yourself.

Sadly, the issue which fuelled the cruel zero-tolerance policy isn’t endemic to the United States or its orange-hued ex-president. It’s one that many nations, even Malaysia, is grappling with – the love-hate relationship with undocumented migrants, even asylum seekers and refugees, many of whom desperately make the dangerous trek to other shores in the hopes of escaping the perils at home.

When the news of America’s goings-on broke, we told ourselves that while Malaysia may not always treat undocumented migrants properly – at times promising them amnesty only to arrest them; detaining them in crowded depots, refusing to recognise refugee status, and denying adult refugees jobs and children a formal education – we at least keep the families together. Right?

Right?

It seems that mayn’t be the case. Our men and women at the Immigration Department recently deported over a thousand Myanmar nationals, despite an interim stay order by the courts. And it gets worse. 

It turned out among the 1,086 Myanmarese were several asylum-seeking kids who were allegedly separated from families and put on waiting Myanmar naval ships last Tuesday, to be deported back to their home nation. 

So to recap: 

1. Our beloved gomen decided to repatriate over a thousand Myanmar nationals, including UNHCR refugee cardholders and minors (allegedly, allegedly)
2. This action was in seeming defiance of a High Court order (was it contempt?) 
3. This was done knowing the political situation in Myanmar now and the risks posed to the deportees from Myanmar’s military junta
4. And worst of all, they possibly sent two children off – alone.
    

Now, FYI, our immigration folks have claimed the detainee handover process with Myanmar began in the morning before the court issued the stay, that deportees had boarded the ships voluntarily, and there were no Rohingya refugees or asylum seekers on board.

But rights groups have questioned the whereabouts of 114 other detainees initially selected for repatriation. How many of these are children, we wonder? 

Many people do not realise that children make up refugee populations, many even having to leave home and make the journey over land, sea, and/or air, alone (this excellent report by Malaysiakini narrates the sad stories as told by several such children in Malaysia). But to have made the trip with your family only to be torn away?

Our gomen has much to answer for – if at all it bothers to, that is.

For now, we leave you with this quote by former South Africa president and human rights champion, the late indomitable Nelson Mandela:

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”