In a quiet suburb of the Malaysian city of Klang, Farouk* scrolls through his phone, replaying videos of a toddler learning to walk, laugh and reach out to steady himself – milestone moments of a son whom he is forced to love through a screen.
“He is now two years old, but I have never held him,” the 26-year-old Rohingya man said. “I have only seen him twice from afar at the gate.”
Farouk’s wife gave birth in a Malaysian immigration detention centre a day after the family were arrested in early 2024 during an immigration sweep in the city.
Both had entered Malaysia illegally and were taken into detention, plunged into a system that rights advocates say is inhuman and treats refugees like criminals, contrary to Malaysia’s outspoken support for the Muslim minority group on the global stage.
Farouk, who provided an alias to protect his family from any potential repercussions in detention, said his wife gave birth to a son he had yet to meet up close.
He was detained in a separate detention block and released a fortnight later because he had a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) identification card, which provides identification and protection against forced repatriation for the stateless Rohingya who have it.
Malaysia’s paramilitary volunteers guard the main gate of the Malaysian Immigration’s temporary Sungai Bakap depot in Penang in 2022. Photo: AFP