Putrajaya – The political stability in Malaysia has attracted 90,000 refugees from various countries to seek asylum in this country.
According to the UNHCR 2010 report, 90 per cent of them are refugees from Burma.
“Apart from Burma, there are also refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and Sri Lanka seeking asylum in Malaysia.
“In the meantime, Malaysia has also become a place of refuge for stateless people – about 60,000 Muslim Filipinos are residing in Sabah,” says the report quoted from the UNHCR website, www.unhcr.org.
The UN organization says that the endeavour to provide asylum to refugees in Malaysia has become complicated as this country also has about 3 million migrants, of which a million are undocumented migrants.
“Malaysian laws do not distinguish refugees from unregistered migrants.
“This exposes refugees to the risk of being arrested by the authorities for immigration offences, resulting in the fate of being jailed, charged, whipped, or deported,” said the report.
According to the report, the UNHCR has worked together with some NGO in Malaysia to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees.
The international organization predicts that Malaysia will continue to be a destination for refugees and has set a number of goals to help the refugee community.
“One of our goals is to provide skill training for 3,800 teenagers and education opportunities for 3,000 children.
“The UNHCR also wishes to assist 15,000 refugees in Malaysia to be relocated to other countries,” said the report.
Source: Utusan Malaysia website, Kuala Lumpur, in Malay 4 Jan 10
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