Speaking to FMT, Klang MP Charles Santiago said a clarification was necessary because rights groups were disputing the authorities’ claim that no children were deported.

Yesterday, the Asia Pacific Refugees Rights Network, Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights, Asia Forum For Human Rights and Development, International Detention Coalition and other groups claimed in a statement that there were children among those scheduled for deportation.

The statement said there was “troubling confirmation that at least two of those children were separated from their family and deported back to Myanmar alone”.

Santiago said the deportation of children was a serious matter as it goes against the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Malaysia is a signatory to.

“We owe an answer to the international community. We are sending people to a country which is in turmoil and to a place where they face violence and persecution,” he said.

If children were indeed deported, he added, the authorities must explain how they made sure their passage home would be safe.

Immigration director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud recently said those who were deported were not from the Rohingya ethnic group or among asylum seekers. He claimed that all of them agreed to return without coercion by any party.

Suhakam child commissioner Noor Aziah Mohd Awal said she was appalled by the report that children had been deported.

“Children must not be separated from their parents,” she said, adding that Malaysia was violating human rights principles and committing contempt of court by deporting the migrants.