KUALA LUMPUR: Refugees here should be given work permits to enable them to earn a decent living while waiting for resettlement, said Amnesty International (AI) Malaysia executive director Nora Murat.
“We strongly appeal to the Government to give them work permits. Malaysia has not yet ratified the United Nations Convention on Refugees and as such, refugees are not allowed to work here.
“We hope the convention gets ratified soon as they have a basic right to work and education,” she told reporters during a World Refugee Day celebration and public bazaar at the Bar Council yesterday.
Organised by AI Malaysia, the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee and Suaram, the event included the sale of handicraft, food and clothes as well as song and dance performances by refugees.
Malaysia currently has about 90,000 refugees of various ethnicity including those from Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Somalia and Afghanistan. Of the number, 20% are children.
Nora added that a bazaar-like celebration would help increase awareness and foster better interaction between the public and the refugees.
“There is still a negative perception about refugees. Some are also mistaken as illegals and wrongfully arrested,” she added.
Kuala Lumpur Bar's environmental and humanities committee chairman Roger Chan said the xenophobia towards refugees should be discarded, adding that refugees feared voicing out lest they be arrested.
Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee chairman Brendan Navin Siva said the welfare of refugees should not be ignored although there was generally a negative view about them worldwide.
“The onus is on the Government to do the right thing even if public opinion is against it. Refugees are not goods to be moved around,” he added.
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