JUNE 20 — My first encounter with a refugee who sought safety in Malaysia occurred quite unexpectedly. I was 19 years old in my first week of university in the United Kingdom. An Asian-looking girl in my halls of residence sought me out, wanted to meet a ‘Malaysian’. I was curious.
In her strong American accent, she started telling me an extraordinary story. She told me of how she fled Vietnam with her family on a crowded, rickety boat. She was four years old.
She remembered being afraid of pirates and people hiding gold in their teeth. She remembered being worried that their boat would sink or that they would run out of food, and how relieved everybody was when they finally landed.
She had vague memories of growing up in a camp in Malaysia, of waiting for resettlement. Her family was eventually accepted into the United States, and they moved there with hardly anything, entering yet another alien environment.
They struggled to fit into ‘American culture’, but she was young and hardworking and coped better than her parents. She got top marks at school and came to the UK for her junior year abroad. Her name was Elizabeth; she was my age.
I forgot about these conversations for almost a decade as I got into my studies and started working. I only thought about ‘refugees’ again when I met Acehnese in Kuala Lumpur in 2003.
The way they struggled to survive, their physical and mental trauma, their deep concerns about getting arrested and deported, prompted me to start reading up on Malaysia’s history with refugees.
Over the past centuries many groups have sought asylum in Malaysia. The Acehnese, for example, have had a long history of coming to the peninsula when conflict escalates in their province in Sumatra. Some who fled Dutch domination were granted citizenship with the forming of Malaya. Others were given permanent resident status in the 1980s when the Malaysian government welcomed the peoples of Indonesia to work and reside in Malaysia.
The most iconic groups of refugees in recent memory are, of course, the Indochinese refugees.
Between 1975 and 1995, close to two million people left Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam overland and on boats, seeking refuge in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Between 1975 and 1992, Malaysia offered permanent residence to an estimated 10,000 Cambodian Muslims, some resettled from Thailand.
However, for a time, Malaysia had a policy of pushing Vietnamese boats back out to sea, unless the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) intervened in time.
Through its participation in the intergovernmental Comprehensive Plan of Action established in 1989, Malaysia eventually hosted around 250,000 Vietnamese refugees in temporary camps until they were processed for resettlement or repatriated safely back to Vietnam.
Malaysia has also offered asylum to different groups of Muslim refugees, albeit sporadically.
In 1994, in a public demonstration of Islamic solidarity and rising Asian economic strength during a global crisis, Malaysia offered asylum to 350 Bosnian Muslims fleeing the collapse of Yugoslavia.
In the 1970s, Malaysia offered refuge to 120,000 Muslim refugees from the southern Philippines who came to Sabah. Of this number, an estimated 61,000 remain on renewable IMM13 work permits.
After the devastating Asian Tsunami in December 2004, Malaysia issued an estimated 32-35,000 IMM13 work permits to Acehnese refugees. Large numbers of these had arrived from 2003 onwards to escape intensive military operations, which ended with the signing of the Helsinki Peace Agreement in August 2005.
However, such humanitarian gestures have been exceptions rather than the rule. The dominant trend in Malaysia has been the treatment of asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons as ‘illegal immigrants’.
Having fled persecution and conflict, these groups often find themselves in desperate circumstances in Malaysia, hunted down through immigration operations, detained for long periods in detention centres, whipped as criminals, and deported to border zones where they become easy prey for human traffickers.
Most refugees live from day to day in constant fear and abject poverty. Desperate for long-term solutions, some have boarded boats again, traveling onwards to nearby countries like Japan and Australia.
Malaysian apologists for such harsh treatment have claimed, erroneously, that Malaysia has no responsibilities towards asylum seekers and refugees because it is neither party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees nor its 1967 Protocol.
This is an oft repeated, tired refrain – a misunderstanding that legitimizes the abdication of our responsibilities as a member of the United Nations and the Human Rights Council.
Malaysia has ratified two international human rights treaties – the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
The two international committees overseeing the implementation of these treaties have urged the Malaysian government to take concrete measures to protect refugees. Instead of doing so, Malaysian government officials waver between blaming the UNHCR for ‘creating’ refugees and for not resettling them as quickly as they should.
It is vital that the Malaysian government works with the international community to find durable solutions for asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons in the region. This isn’t something that Malaysia has to bear alone, but we must acknowledge that we have a role to play.
We need domestic laws and administrative systems that identify and protect vulnerable groups in accordance with international standards and obligations. We must design these systems well, so that are not easily manipulated and corrupted by those who take advantage of weaker populations.
In the meantime, the Malaysian government can immediately invoke section 55 of the Immigration Act in order to exempt asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons from punishment for immigration offences.
As long as nations are at war, as long as political instability, persecution and conflict exist, there will always be asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons. Some of them will come to Malaysia; this is a fact of life.
Rather than pretending they do not exist, or blaming them for seeking our help, we need to recognize our international obligations to protect and assist these vulnerable groups.
When I met Elizabeth in 1994, I didn’t know anything about refugees. I realize now how great a danger she faced as a four-year old child. She could easily have perished on the waves of the South China Sea. In taking her in, Malaysia literally saved her life.
Malaysia is a strong state – well resourced and influential regionally and internationally. It is a key member of the Association of South East Asian Nations and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Malaysia can play a lead role in protecting vulnerable people.
If our generation is remembered for anything, let us be remembered for this.
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