Concerns have been raised about the treatment of refugees in Malaysia. Concerns have been raised about the treatment of refugees in Malaysia. Photo: AP
A YOUNG Burmese refugee in Malaysia was rounded up, sent to prison for three months and lashed three times with a rattan cane last year, even though he possessed a coveted refugee card supposed to offer protection from persecution.
Kap Lian's account of his arrest, incarceration and punishment, the first by an actual holder of a refugee card, raises new questions about the Australian government's guarantee that no asylum seeker it sends to Malaysia will be abused under its proposed refugee swap deal.
Malaysia and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees insist protections of asylum seekers have improved substantially in recent times. In a significant development, it was announced on Thursday that the feared volunteer corps, known by its Malay acronym RELA, has ceased operations against irregular migrants since March.
But Mr Kap Lian's nightmare occurred when the UNHCR was supposed to have an arrangement with the police and immigration authorities that any genuine asylum seekers would not be detained, let alone punished with caning.
It all began, Mr Kap Lian said, when RELA cadres stormed his apartment block in Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of March 11 last year.
''There were 20 of us picked up and six of us had UNHCR cards,'' said Mr Kap Lian, a quietly spoken 20-year-old from the persecuted Chin ethnic minority. ''We showed them the cards but they just took them from us and kept them … and then took us to prison.''
After 14 days, Mr Kap Lian was taken before a court. But, he said, he had no legal representation and could not understand what was happening because he did not speak Malay. ''The sentence was three months and three hits with the cane. It was the same for all six of us.''
Trussed up and naked except for a blindfold and a small piece of cloth to cover his genitals, Mr Lian said he took three hits across his buttocks from the long rattan cane.
''It [the pain] was very bad,'' he said. ''For one week, I couldn't sleep. For two weeks, I couldn't sit down … just once they put on the medicine [on the wounds].''