The Struggle to End Child Immigration Detention in Malaysia

New Naratif's Southeast Asia Dispatches

Based on April 2023 figures from the Home Ministry, a total of 1,030 children, 43% of whom are girls, are currently being held in 19 immigration detention centres across Malaysia. Two-thirds of these are unaccompanied and separated children.

There are alternatives to detention that ensures proper administration of migration in kinder, more successful, and less expensive ways that do not include arrest or imprisonment. We call this Alternatives to Detention, or ATD. But if that’s so promising, why hasn’t there been any concrete action?

In this episode, Hannah Jambunathan (International Detention Coalition) and Joshua Low (New Naratif) will talk about children in Malaysia’s immigration detention centres, what the deal is with the holdup in the Malaysian government, and what researchers and non-researchers can do to help advocacy moving forward.

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