Deportation of Syed Fawad: a total disregard for human rights and press freedom

Why is the UNHCR totally silent on the issue?

Updated 3.15pm, 4th January 2022

Yesterday, the current home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail revealed the journalist and columnist Syed Fawad Ali Shah was deported to Pakistan on August 23 2022.

A lawyer representing Syed Fawad’s wife, said Syed Fawad was abducted. Syed Fawad has been in Malaysia for more than 13 years, with a refugee card, granting him refugee status, issued by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) in Kuala Lumpur.

Syed Fawad was a columnist for the Daily Times, Pakistan Today, and Hammar Web in Pakistan. He had written a number of articles critical of the Pakistan government and its leadership. His last article published on August 17, 2022 criticized Malaysia’s alleged exploitation of refugees.

Syed Fawad had been missing since August 23 last year. His wife made a missing persons report soon after, but the home minister’s statement yesterday was the first news about Syed Fawad’s whereabouts.

The home minister said in a press conference, at the Malaysian Prisons Department Headquarters, that the Pakistan government has requested Malaysian authorities track down Syed Fawad and repatriate him on disciplinary charges, while he was allegedly and police officer more than 16 years ago.

Pakistan does not have any statute of criminal limitations, which leaves the Pakistan legal system open to abuse. Charges can be made from decades ago, on a pretext to take someone into custody.  

Saifuddin said the Malaysian government acted according to the Pakistan government’s request, where Syed Fawad was deported during the third week of August last year. The decision was made by the controversial former home minister Hamzah Zainudin, in the Ismail Sabri government. Saifuddin went onto say that the government at the time acted on the information provided by Pakistan authorities, apparently without investigation. We know Syed Fawad wasn’t provided with access to a lawyer, or opportunity to challenge the deportation in court.

Investigations have found that the Malaysian authorities have similar arrangements with Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand, where people are often deported back to their countries without any due process. The UNHCR headquarters in Geneva last October protested against Malaysia’s deportation of Myanmar asylum-seekers without any due process.

The new opposition leader needs to explain the decision he made on Syed Fawad when he was home minister

Malaysia’s deportation of Syed Fawad is against the principle of non-refoulement. This is a principle in international law that forbids a country receiving asylum seekers from returning to a country in which they would be in danger of persecution.

UNHCR’s silence on the deportation

Under the charter of the UNHCR, the Malaysian office on its website states that the “UNHCR cooperates with the Malaysian government in managing refugee protection, such as prosecution, arrest, and detention.

The UNHCR has been negligent in the case of Syed Fawad. The body has been totally silent on the matter for the last 16 months.

Puan Yanti Ismail at the UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur was contacted for any further information. I am awaiting a reply. (A response was received this afternoon, see below).

Some of the questions arising from the Syed Fawad deportation are as follows:

1.      Syed Fawad was hastily deported from Malaysia after the Pakistan government request, on the basis of disciplinary charges purportedly made against him (no documentary proof presented to the public of such charges). However, Zakir Naik with a similar request made for his extradition by Indian authorities on charges of possession of USD 28 million in criminally gained assets was ignored by Malaysian authorities.

Is the Home Ministry applying double standards in requests for repatriations?

2.      Syed Fawad in a 2019 interview claimed that Pakistani intelligence was monitoring him. If correct, is this a case of a foreign intelligence agency acting on Malaysian soil illegally? Is this a case of a foreign intelligence agency acting in cooperation with Malaysian intelligence on its citizens?

This is a case of an attack on press freedom. It should be of concern to all within the media. In addition, human rights of asylum seekers have been trampled on. The new government must clearly state its attitudes on these two issues.

Subscribe Below:

Response from UNHCR Kuala Lumpur

4 January 2023

Attributable to UNHCR Spokesperson in Kuala Lumpur

i. For protection and confidentiality reasons, UNHCR is not in a position to comment on the details of individual cases. We are therefore unable to provide any specific information on Syed Fawad’s case.

ii. However, in general, as a matter of practice, UNHCR consistently advocates that refugees and asylum seekers – having been confirmed or claimed to be in need of international protection – cannot be returned to their countries of origin.

This is according to the principle of non-refoulement, which prevents States from expelling or returning persons to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened.

This principle is recognised as customary international law, which is binding for all states, regardless of whether or not they have signed the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

iii. Furthermore, UNHCR has not received approval from Immigration authorities to access immigration detention centres since August 2019, despite our continuous advocacy and advocacy from others on this matter.

This has unfortunately prevented us from seeing detained persons of concern in order to verify their refugee status, to determine if they are of concern to UNHCR and in need of international protection, and to prevent deportation for those verified to be refugees and asylum-seekers.

With the recent developments of deportation, there is an even greater concern that there remains in detention a number of persons of concern, including vulnerable individuals, whose refugee status has not yet been verified, requiring our attention.

UNHCR continues to advocate with the Immigration Department and relevant Government agencies and Ministries, including at the highest level, for immediate access to those who may be in need of our protection.

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