The Star
by SHAILA KOSHY and RASHVINJEET S. BEDI
“Overall, it's still the developing world that is carrying the lion's share of responsibility for hosting refugees,” he says.
Malaysia has been drawing economic migrants to its shores for centuries but it was only in 1975 that we came into contact with refugees, when hordes of Vietnamese boat people began arriving along the east coast of the peninsula.
The UNHCR set up office here then and assisted Malaysia in hosting close to 250,000 of them for over two decades before long-term solutions were found. Over 240,000 Vietnamese boat people were resettled and some 9,000 returned home.
Currently, Malaysia is home to around 93,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered with UNHCR, of whom 92% are from Myanmar. There are another 4,000 Sri Lankans, 1,050 Somalis, 710 Iraqis and 510 Afghans.
However, unless there is a refugee community in their neighbourhood, few Malaysians notice their presence or might even mistake them for a foreign worker.
They couldn't be more wrong in equating the two: the foreign workers are here for economic reasons, but the refugees have escaped torture and threat to life and are awaiting resettlement to a third country.
Foreign workers can hold jobs as long as they have a work permit. However, asylum seekers have no such right and are subject to harassment by enforcement authorities and detention even if they carry a UN card verifying their refugee status.
As such, they usually take on invisible jobs such as kitchen help in restaurants, factory hands, or labourers on construction sites and plantations, says James Wong, who supports the 300-odd Myanmar community in Kuchai Lama by helping them find housing and jobs.
When he first met them, they were living in squatter settlements in the jungle to avoid the enforcement authorities and danger, says Wong, the head of a training school for welders.
Except for the odd report now and again, international focus has been more on Malaysia's role in preventing/abetting human trafficking rather than on the lives of asylum seekers here.
But this will now change.
Recently, Australia announced an agreement with Malaysia to send 800 asylum seekers here for processing. In exchange, Australia will accept 4,000 refugees who have had their claims processed in Malaysia over four years at a cost of A$292mil (RM935mil).
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said the deal would result in boat people “going to the back of the queue” of those seeking resettlement and would render nugatory what people smugglers try to sell a ticket to Australia.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, who is finalising the deal with the consultation of the UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), has called the deal a pioneering and cutting-edge solution to tackle people smuggling worldwide.
The agreement is yet to be formalised but many groups here and overseas have already expressed concern.
One question being asked is why Australia a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees is making a deal with a country that is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention or its 1967 Protocol.
“If this were an agreement between two countries which had ratified the Refugee Convention and provided fair treatment to asylum seekers and refugees, we could support a reasonable proposal to share responsibility,” says Refugees Council of Australia chief executive officer Paul Power.
On this side, Malaysian Bar president Lim Chee Wee points out that Australia is consigning 800 people to a life of uncertainty and probable suffering, given that there are no legislative or administrative provisions in place for dealing with the situation of asylum seekers or refugees here.
A 2009 Inter Press Service (IPS) report notes that it has become commonplace for the authorities here to use Rela to “periodically arrest and deport' Rohingyas, a Muslim minority.”
As Myanmar does not recognise them as citizens, the practice is to take them to Bukit Kayu Hitam on the Thai-Malaysia border and force them to cross over. The IPS report claims that those unable to pay are turned over to human peddlers in Thailand, who represent a variety of business interests from fishing boats to brothels.
Refugees International (RI) says many refugees interviewed in a recent study claim they had been stopped by police, forced to pay bribes to avoid being arrested and caned for immigration offences.
Looking at these comments, it would seem that Malaysia is an asylum seeker's worst nightmare.
There is no clear policy on their treatment, their lives are a game of roulette and the outcome depends largely on which enforcement authority stops them for a check, according to some refugees.
On March 29, The Star reported Suhakam commissioner Sha'ani Abdullah as saying how one investigating officer (IO) had released a group of refugees they had picked up after police had verified their status with UNHCR. But one from another station thought he could only release them if a deputy public prosecutor okayed it, even though no criminal offence had been committed.
Sha'ani said that if he had not called the IO's senior officer to protest, the refugees would have had to spend the weekend in detention.
His fellow commissioner James Nayagam highlights another incident recently where he queried the detention of a busload of Myanmar asylum seekers who had gone shopping at Masjid India, although they had a letter from the Chin Refugee Committee stating who they were.
“These people are not criminals! They are victims, they should be sent to shelters and not lock-ups,” says Nayagam.
Wong says that when they set up the community in Kuchai Lama four years ago, police harassment was common but over the years, “it has become less with civil society protests and us engaging with them, although it has picked up again the last two months.”
The threat from gangsters hasn't abated though, he says.
For some refugees, it is Rela officers rather than the police they try to avoid, says Tual Khau Lian, 55, who came here in 2004.
“The police are not so bad, they make me feel protected. But I stay away from Rela and never go into the city on weekends.”
While having access to medical facilities is important for Vung Lam Dim, 33 and Suan Cing, 26, who have young children who were born here, the Christian refugees from Myanmar value greatly “the religious freedom here” unlike the persecution they faced at home.
A fellow Chin, Tual speaks warmly about how Malaysians “do not look down on me just because I am a Chin, unlike the soldiers and some others at home.”
It would appear that refugees who have local community support have a slightly better time waiting for resettlement even though many of them live from hand to mouth.
For the Chins in Cheras, the Life Harvest Assembly in Taman Miharja is their bedrock of support.
“We help with finances, job placement and housing,” says Pastor May Kow, who also runs a school for the Chin children.
What began with a Myanmar woman asking whether she could attend the English service even though she couldn't understand the language, led to the setting up of a Myanmar Church there and the rest followed.
While the Government consults with the UNHCR on the agreement with Australia, there is a need to check on how to hasten the time taken to process and register an asylum seeker.
Vizla Kumaresan, of Health Equity Initiatives (HEI), an NGO that deals with refugee rights, says some wait for years just to be registered with UNHCR while others wait much longer to be resettled.
“Some of them were born as refugees, and now have children born as refugees. They just want to start a new life. For the desperate, it's (a boat trip to Australia) a real option.”
The uncertainty and sheer desolation drive them to hazard a eight- to 10-day trip on a trawler in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions.
If Malaysia is going to sign the agreement with Australia, there should be a more consistent policy on refugees, one that eschews harassment and detention for more humane alternatives.
On May 11, a global roundtable in Geneva kicked off a series of regional discussions hosted by the UNHCR, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights with support from the NGO International Detention Coalition.
The exchange of global best practices provided some viable alternatives; among them:
>The Philippines releases asylum-seekers with no conditions and gives them asylum-seeker certificates;
>Others release on condition, such as reporting in person to renew identity documents, or reporting to the police or immigration at regular intervals; and
>Canada's Toronto Bail Programme individuals are released to a government-funded NGO that provides a full range of services, including help in navigating the asylum and social service systems.
According to the RI study “Malaysia: Invest in Solution for Refugees,” the Government has taken significant steps forward in improving refugee rights.
In the past year, it says there have been no reported attempts to deport Myanmar refugees to the Thai border and there has been a decrease in immigration raids and arrests of registered refugees.
But these advances need to be codified into written government policy otherwise refugees will still be considered “illegal migrants” and therefore subject to arrest and detention.
In calling for Malaysia to “build on this progress by setting up a system of residence and work permits for refugees,” RI also urges the international community to mobilise additional funds for UNHCR and NGOs to use this opportunity to improve refugee rights.
by SHAILA KOSHY and RASHVINJEET S. BEDI
The asylum seeker-refugee swap Australia has proposed with Malaysia has raised concerns about the fate of those who are coming here.
FREEDOM from persecution and war is a powerful motivator that makes thousands uproot loved ones or break up their families to leave their home countries in search of asylum every year.
The journey is costly and fraught with danger and at the end of it, asylum seekers face the possibility of repatriation, being thrown behind bars or stuck in immigration detention centres for years.
On March 28, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva reported a dramatic fall in the number of asylum seekers in the industrialised world over the last 10 years. It fell from 620,000 applications in 2001 to 358,800 in 2010.
But, notes the UN Refugee Agency's High Commissioner Antonio Guterres, the root causes of the decline need to be studied to determine whether it is because of “fewer push factors in areas of origin, or tighter migration control in countries of asylum”.
FREEDOM from persecution and war is a powerful motivator that makes thousands uproot loved ones or break up their families to leave their home countries in search of asylum every year.
The journey is costly and fraught with danger and at the end of it, asylum seekers face the possibility of repatriation, being thrown behind bars or stuck in immigration detention centres for years.
On March 28, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva reported a dramatic fall in the number of asylum seekers in the industrialised world over the last 10 years. It fell from 620,000 applications in 2001 to 358,800 in 2010.
But, notes the UN Refugee Agency's High Commissioner Antonio Guterres, the root causes of the decline need to be studied to determine whether it is because of “fewer push factors in areas of origin, or tighter migration control in countries of asylum”.
“Overall, it's still the developing world that is carrying the lion's share of responsibility for hosting refugees,” he says.
Malaysia has been drawing economic migrants to its shores for centuries but it was only in 1975 that we came into contact with refugees, when hordes of Vietnamese boat people began arriving along the east coast of the peninsula.
The UNHCR set up office here then and assisted Malaysia in hosting close to 250,000 of them for over two decades before long-term solutions were found. Over 240,000 Vietnamese boat people were resettled and some 9,000 returned home.
Currently, Malaysia is home to around 93,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered with UNHCR, of whom 92% are from Myanmar. There are another 4,000 Sri Lankans, 1,050 Somalis, 710 Iraqis and 510 Afghans.
However, unless there is a refugee community in their neighbourhood, few Malaysians notice their presence or might even mistake them for a foreign worker.
They couldn't be more wrong in equating the two: the foreign workers are here for economic reasons, but the refugees have escaped torture and threat to life and are awaiting resettlement to a third country.
Foreign workers can hold jobs as long as they have a work permit. However, asylum seekers have no such right and are subject to harassment by enforcement authorities and detention even if they carry a UN card verifying their refugee status.
As such, they usually take on invisible jobs such as kitchen help in restaurants, factory hands, or labourers on construction sites and plantations, says James Wong, who supports the 300-odd Myanmar community in Kuchai Lama by helping them find housing and jobs.
When he first met them, they were living in squatter settlements in the jungle to avoid the enforcement authorities and danger, says Wong, the head of a training school for welders.
Except for the odd report now and again, international focus has been more on Malaysia's role in preventing/abetting human trafficking rather than on the lives of asylum seekers here.
But this will now change.
Recently, Australia announced an agreement with Malaysia to send 800 asylum seekers here for processing. In exchange, Australia will accept 4,000 refugees who have had their claims processed in Malaysia over four years at a cost of A$292mil (RM935mil).
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said the deal would result in boat people “going to the back of the queue” of those seeking resettlement and would render nugatory what people smugglers try to sell a ticket to Australia.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, who is finalising the deal with the consultation of the UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), has called the deal a pioneering and cutting-edge solution to tackle people smuggling worldwide.
The agreement is yet to be formalised but many groups here and overseas have already expressed concern.
One question being asked is why Australia a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees is making a deal with a country that is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention or its 1967 Protocol.
“If this were an agreement between two countries which had ratified the Refugee Convention and provided fair treatment to asylum seekers and refugees, we could support a reasonable proposal to share responsibility,” says Refugees Council of Australia chief executive officer Paul Power.
On this side, Malaysian Bar president Lim Chee Wee points out that Australia is consigning 800 people to a life of uncertainty and probable suffering, given that there are no legislative or administrative provisions in place for dealing with the situation of asylum seekers or refugees here.
A 2009 Inter Press Service (IPS) report notes that it has become commonplace for the authorities here to use Rela to “periodically arrest and deport' Rohingyas, a Muslim minority.”
As Myanmar does not recognise them as citizens, the practice is to take them to Bukit Kayu Hitam on the Thai-Malaysia border and force them to cross over. The IPS report claims that those unable to pay are turned over to human peddlers in Thailand, who represent a variety of business interests from fishing boats to brothels.
Refugees International (RI) says many refugees interviewed in a recent study claim they had been stopped by police, forced to pay bribes to avoid being arrested and caned for immigration offences.
Looking at these comments, it would seem that Malaysia is an asylum seeker's worst nightmare.
There is no clear policy on their treatment, their lives are a game of roulette and the outcome depends largely on which enforcement authority stops them for a check, according to some refugees.
On March 29, The Star reported Suhakam commissioner Sha'ani Abdullah as saying how one investigating officer (IO) had released a group of refugees they had picked up after police had verified their status with UNHCR. But one from another station thought he could only release them if a deputy public prosecutor okayed it, even though no criminal offence had been committed.
Sha'ani said that if he had not called the IO's senior officer to protest, the refugees would have had to spend the weekend in detention.
His fellow commissioner James Nayagam highlights another incident recently where he queried the detention of a busload of Myanmar asylum seekers who had gone shopping at Masjid India, although they had a letter from the Chin Refugee Committee stating who they were.
“These people are not criminals! They are victims, they should be sent to shelters and not lock-ups,” says Nayagam.
Wong says that when they set up the community in Kuchai Lama four years ago, police harassment was common but over the years, “it has become less with civil society protests and us engaging with them, although it has picked up again the last two months.”
The threat from gangsters hasn't abated though, he says.
For some refugees, it is Rela officers rather than the police they try to avoid, says Tual Khau Lian, 55, who came here in 2004.
“The police are not so bad, they make me feel protected. But I stay away from Rela and never go into the city on weekends.”
While having access to medical facilities is important for Vung Lam Dim, 33 and Suan Cing, 26, who have young children who were born here, the Christian refugees from Myanmar value greatly “the religious freedom here” unlike the persecution they faced at home.
A fellow Chin, Tual speaks warmly about how Malaysians “do not look down on me just because I am a Chin, unlike the soldiers and some others at home.”
It would appear that refugees who have local community support have a slightly better time waiting for resettlement even though many of them live from hand to mouth.
For the Chins in Cheras, the Life Harvest Assembly in Taman Miharja is their bedrock of support.
“We help with finances, job placement and housing,” says Pastor May Kow, who also runs a school for the Chin children.
What began with a Myanmar woman asking whether she could attend the English service even though she couldn't understand the language, led to the setting up of a Myanmar Church there and the rest followed.
While the Government consults with the UNHCR on the agreement with Australia, there is a need to check on how to hasten the time taken to process and register an asylum seeker.
Vizla Kumaresan, of Health Equity Initiatives (HEI), an NGO that deals with refugee rights, says some wait for years just to be registered with UNHCR while others wait much longer to be resettled.
“Some of them were born as refugees, and now have children born as refugees. They just want to start a new life. For the desperate, it's (a boat trip to Australia) a real option.”
The uncertainty and sheer desolation drive them to hazard a eight- to 10-day trip on a trawler in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions.
If Malaysia is going to sign the agreement with Australia, there should be a more consistent policy on refugees, one that eschews harassment and detention for more humane alternatives.
On May 11, a global roundtable in Geneva kicked off a series of regional discussions hosted by the UNHCR, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights with support from the NGO International Detention Coalition.
The exchange of global best practices provided some viable alternatives; among them:
>The Philippines releases asylum-seekers with no conditions and gives them asylum-seeker certificates;
>Others release on condition, such as reporting in person to renew identity documents, or reporting to the police or immigration at regular intervals; and
>Canada's Toronto Bail Programme individuals are released to a government-funded NGO that provides a full range of services, including help in navigating the asylum and social service systems.
According to the RI study “Malaysia: Invest in Solution for Refugees,” the Government has taken significant steps forward in improving refugee rights.
In the past year, it says there have been no reported attempts to deport Myanmar refugees to the Thai border and there has been a decrease in immigration raids and arrests of registered refugees.
But these advances need to be codified into written government policy otherwise refugees will still be considered “illegal migrants” and therefore subject to arrest and detention.
In calling for Malaysia to “build on this progress by setting up a system of residence and work permits for refugees,” RI also urges the international community to mobilise additional funds for UNHCR and NGOs to use this opportunity to improve refugee rights.
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