16-05-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Govt MP hopes Anwar will push home ministry to review deportation SOPs
Subang MP Wong Chen said the home ministry has yet to follow up on a meeting last year to review extradition SOPs.
PETALING JAYA : A government backbencher has voiced hope that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's recent comments on the deportation of Cambodian maid Nuon Toeun will spur the home ministry into ending transnational refoulement practices.
Subang MP Wong Chen, who chairs the Malaysian chapter of the Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), said the incident was discussed with the home ministry at a meeting in Parliament last November.
'All parties in that meeting agreed that this episode should not happen again as it puts Malaysia in a bad light.
'We agreed that we would take steps to revise the immigration standard operating procedures on similar future extradition requests,' he said in a Facebook post.
However, he said despite repeated attempts to schedule a follow-up discussion, his office has yet to receive a response from the ministry.
'I take this interview as a positive sign that the prime minister is very committed to improving governance.
'I hope to see him after his trips overseas and ask him to nudge the home ministry to engage my office to help end this terrible practice of transnational refoulement,' Wong added.
In an interview with Qatar-based news network Al Jazeera, Anwar said he had conveyed his concerns to Cambodian prime minister Hun Manet before allowing the deportation of Nuon Toeun for allegedly criticising former Cambodian leader Hun Sen in several Facebook posts.
Nuon Toeun was deported from Malaysia in September last year and is reportedly being held at a prison in Phnom Penh. She is expected to be charged with 'inciting to commit acts that cause serious disturbance to social security and incite discrimination'.
Hun Sen, Cambodia's former prime minister, led the country for nearly four decades before stepping down in 2023 and assuming the role of senate president.
Putrajaya was criticised by various human rights groups for allowing Nuon Toeun's deportation.
