Judge Mariana Yahya heard arguments from the Attorney-General’s Chambers, appearing for the Immigration Department and government, and the groups’ lead counsel Ambiga Sreenevasan during an online hearing today.
The interim order barring any fresh deportation and any deportation of those remaining is valid until March 9, too, co-counsel New Sin Yew said.
The Immigration Department repatriated over 1,000 Myanmar nationals via three Myanmar navy ships from the Lumut naval base in Perak yesterday, despite an earlier court order barring them from doing so.
Human rights groups criticised the government’s action, saying that it was “outrageous and unacceptable”.
The action by immigration officers to repatriate the Myanmar nationals despite the court order was raised at the hearing today by the groups’ lawyers.
In response, senior federal counsel for the department, Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Arwi, told the court they immediately informed the authorities of the interim stay order, obtained at 1.20pm yesterday.
He added that the department had informed the court they had surrendered the Myanmar nationals on Tuesday morning.
“After that, the department has no control over the Myanmar nationals on the foreign ship.
“The court also ordered for a proper explanation to be made later after the leave for judicial review is heard,” Hanir said.
Asylum Access Global and Amnesty International Malaysia filed a challenge on Monday to quash the government’s decision to send back 20 Myanmar nationals to their country.
This involved three Myanmar nationals who possessed UNHCR cards, and 17 children.
Subsequently, the two groups also wanted the court to revoke the government’s decision to send back the 1,086 Myanmar nationals to Yangon.
The rights groups claimed the decision to deport UNHCR card holders back to Myanmar would endanger their lives.
“It is also against Malaysia’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child treaty. These children would be separated from their parents here,” the groups said.
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