John Tribbett, Kuala Lumpur – It's late at night and I'm sitting in a 24-hour restaurant drinking tea with a group of Acehnese refugees, all men in their early twenties. We are discussing a threat made by the Malaysian government last month to arrest and deport some 1.2 million illegal immigrants – mostly Indonesians working on plantations and construction sites – by the end of this year. All of the men seated around me, having escaped Aceh by whatever means possible, lack proper legal documentation to be in the country.

Despite having taken refuge in Malaysia, the Malaysian government will not formally acknowledge these men as refugees, a move that would ensure their protection. That means the estimated 20,000 Acehnese living in Malaysia are considered illegal immigrants unless they have proper documentation. All could potentially be deported.

"I know the Malaysian government wants to send illegal immigrants back to Indonesia," says Abrahim (not his real name). "But if we are sent back to Indonesia and we arrive first in Sumatra, we be killed And we will never arrive in Aceh."

Malaysian Home Minister Azmi Khalid announced the deportation plan on July 12, adding that some 400,000 members of the Peoples' Volunteer Corp would help conduct the arrests and deportations. Malaysian authorities – who have agreed not to deport any illegal workers before the Indonesian election on September 20 – currently are working out the logistics of housing and shipping back those who are arrested.

But Malaysia's desire to implement this planned mass deportation doesn't take Abrahim's fears into account. The warnings about large-scale deportations are driven here by public perceptions of an increase in crime, government security concerns and the fear of an economy flooded with undocumented workers.

In 2002, Malaysia followed through with a similar threatened crackdown that was widely criticized, as numerous deportees were reported to have died, including children, from disease and dehydration in poorly equipped detention camps. At that time, refugees and asylum seekers were arrested and subject to the same ill treatment and unsanitary conditions as illegal immigrants.

Aceh, located only a few hours by boat from peninsular Malaysia via the Malacca Strait, has spent nearly three decades embroiled in a bloody military conflict between Free Aceh Moment (GAM) rebels and Indonesian government troops.

GAM forces are seeking independence from a Jakarta-based government accused of exploiting the vast natural resources in Aceh and leaving the average Acehnese in poverty. The conflict is particularly brutal, and it is estimated that more than 12,000 people have been killed since 1976, many of them civilians. Human-rights abuses, including rape, torture and extrajudicial killings, have been widely documented.

"We are just normal villagers, but if you are in the age range of 14 to 45 you are considered GAM," said Abrahim. This is the vicious cycle Acehnese males face, the young men at the table explained. If you are an Acehnese man, you are either considered to be a GAM member, or a potential member of GAM, and are treated as such. If you escape to Malaysia and are subsequently deported to Indonesia, your having left only serves to confirm your guilt in the eyes of the Indonesian soldiers, they said.

"If you get sent back to Aceh now, with the TNI [the Indonesian military] knowing that you have left, it makes you immediately suspicious," said Alice Nah, refugee affairs coordinator for the Malaysian-based non-governmental organization and human-rights group Haukam, which works closely with Acehnese refugees. "If you have anything that marks you as having been in Malaysia, then you are in danger."

But while the distinction between refugees and asylum seekers versus that of the much larger illegal immigrant population may be murky for Malaysian officials, that is not the case with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the international body responsible for overseeing the protection of refugees.

"We are not dealing with illegal migrants, we are dealing with people who are in need of international protection," said Kuala Lumpur's UNHCR representative Volker Turk. "We have found the Acehnese on a group basis to be in need of international protection given the current situation in Aceh. This is exactly what we have told the Malaysian authorities."

Despite the concerns of the international community, Malaysia is able to sidestep the refugee issue because they have yet to sign the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and it 1967 Protocol. This 1951 convention clearly defines who is a refugee and outlines a broad series of protective measures that strictly prohibit the forced return of refugees to hostile environments like Aceh.

"The problem in Malaysia is that they have flexibility as to how they apply the law. If they have legal documentation they are okay. If not, then they are illegal persons and can be arrested under the [Malaysian] Immigration Act," Stephane Jaquemet, former acting representative of the UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur, said earlier this year.

Under the Immigration Act, which was fortified in 2002, arrested illegal immigrants are subject up to a five-year jail sentence, a RM10,000 (US$2,600) fine and six strokes of the cane. And Malaysia seems to be flexing this draconian muscle in the build up to the mass deportations. Officials announced last week that illegal immigrants will not simply be deported but will also be subject to punishment under the immigration act before they are returned.

According to Turk, "There are international obligations that Malaysian is bound by irrespective of signing the [UN] convention." These include the Convention on the Rights of a Child, of which Malaysia is a signatory. Article 22 of that convention outlines state responsibility toward refugee children. But despite these international obligations, Malaysia has continued to arrest and deport Acehnese refugees.

Whether or not these punitive measures and deportation will be meted out to the Acehnese refugees in mass over the coming months is yet to be seen. Up to now the Malaysian authorities, unencumbered with any official refugee policy, seem to have been deporting enough of the Acehnese to please the Indonesians, but not so many as to draw international attention.

If they were to officially accept the Acehnese as refugees, they would indirectly be making a judgement about Jakarta's internal business, something Malaysia is loathed to do. Moreover, such a move would trample on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' sacred cow of noninterference in one another's domestic affairs.

But Turk, who contended that the UNHCR has been involved in unofficial "high-level talks" with the government here in recent months, said, "I am very confident the Malaysian government will cooperate with us. I am also aware of some problems," he added. "There were a number of arrests 10 days ago. But we also are aware that people got released as well. Now we have documented and registered them. So we'll have both, and somehow we have to work on this disconnect."

This is the disconnect that has the Acehnese I am talking with worried. Though they are confident the UNHCR will help them, there can be no certainty the planned mass deportations will not catch them in its indiscriminate net.

"We Acehnese find that Malaysia is a safe country for us. But the fact is, we are actually being arrested when we come here," said Abrahim, contemplating his future in Malaysia. "Now, there are many refugees running out from Aceh because they can't stand the cruelty of the TNI soldiers. The Malaysian government should understand the situation in Aceh and not send us back."