KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 — The Immigration Department acted unlawfully when it detained three Selangor-born but stateless children for weeks without bringing them to court as they were protected by Malaysian law even without citizenship, the High Court has said in a groundbreaking ruling.
On July 1, 2022, the Immigration Department arrested D and her three stateless children aged 12, 11 and seven, and detained them at the Bukit Jalil immigration detention centre. D was arrested under suspicion of the offence of not having a valid pass to enter Malaysia, but her own Malaysian PR mother said she has never left Malaysia since her birth here.
The full High Court judgment by Justice Datuk Noorin Badaruddin goes beyond deciding whether the young family should be released from detention, and makes it clear that even non-citizen children are protected by a law for children in the country. The Immigration Department argued that it had lawfully arrested and detained the family as the deportation and detention orders were made 14 days after their arrest, and argued that the three children’s non-Malaysian status meant that there is no need to bring them before a magistrate within 24 hours of their arrest and that they only need to be produced before a magistrate within 14 days of their arrest.
Among other things, Section 84 also said the Court for Children shall release the child on a bond, unless the charge involves murder or a grave crime, or if it is in the child’s best interest to remove them from association with an undesirable person or there was reason to believe the child’s release would defeat the ends of justice.
The judge cited the Child Act’s Section 83, where a child who is alleged to have committed an offence cannot be arrested, detained or put on trial unless it follows the Child Act’s provision. Ultimately, the High Court said the immigration detention of the children was flawed on all accounts, as there was no compliance with either the 24-hour or the 14-day rules under the laws.
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