In the early hours of 20th April, over 500 Rohingya refugees, including 97 women, 294 men, and 137 children, escaped from a detention centre in Sungai Bakap. It was later confirmed that 7 of those who fled were killed tragically in a traffic accident, including three young children. Over the following days, at least 467 people were re-detained, and there is a continuing effort by government authorities to find and arrest the remaining refugees who fled. As members of the international human rights community, we the undersigned are deeply concerned by this heartbreaking loss of life, and we urge the Malaysian government to conduct an immediate, thorough, and independent inquiry into the underlying circumstances and detention conditions which led to such severe levels of human desperation, and prompted an escape attempt by so many.
