UNHCR: Refugees cannot be sent back to their country of origin

PETALING JAYA: Refugees cannot be deported to their country of origin because it would be breaching international law, says the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

This was in light of former Bangladesh High Commissioner to Malaysia M. Khairuzzaman being arrested following a request from his country.

The UNHCR, in an email to Free Malaysia Today, said refugees could not be sent back to their home country based on the principle of non-refoulement, which did not allow governments to deport refugees to a place where their life or freedom would be threatened.

"This principle is recognised as customary international law which is binding on all states, regardless of whether or not they have signed the 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees," the UNHCR was quoted in the news portal.

It was reported that Khairuzzaman, 65, a retired army major, was accused in the 1975 assassination of Bangladesh’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

He was later acquitted and appointed High Commissioner to Malaysia in 2007.

He was reportedly also linked to "jail killings" where Bangladeshi national leaders Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Mansur Ali and AHM Quamruzzaman were murdered in Dhaka Central Jail on Nov 3, 1975.

After the Awani League-led government came to power in 2009, he was recalled to Dhaka.

Fearing arrest upon his return, Khairuzzaman obtained a UN Refugee card in Kuala Lumpur and continued staying here.

In an interview with The Star in 2009, Khairuzzaman had described his implication in the murder of Mujibur a "complete fabrication" and accused the then newly-elected Awami League government of trying to stir public sentiment.