US cable claims refugees fearful of rampant police extortion

By Between news 

Eight kilo­me­ters away from the Prime Minister’s Office in Putra­jaya, 1,000 unreg­is­tered Myan­mar Chin refugees live in fear of police harass­ment in prim­i­tive jun­gle camps.

Located on the bor­der of palm oil plan­ta­tions, the camps where the refugees stay, were built four years ago, a famil­iar set­ting where the police made raids, threat­ened unreg­is­tered refugees with arrests and depor­ta­tion extort­ing money in lieu of an unthreat­ened sojourn.

The United Nations High Com­mis­sioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have not max­i­mized their efforts to reg­is­ter the Myan­mar Chins leav­ing them sus­cep­ti­ble vic­tims for extor­tion­ists, traf­fick­ers and abu­sive employers.

A UNHCR reg­is­tra­tion is the only pro­tec­tion for refugees and their chil­dren. Access to legal med­ical care, edu­ca­tion and the right to res­i­dence are the priv­i­leges given to a refugee with a UNHCR reg­is­tra­tion card.

Out of the 20,000 Chin refugees esti­mated by unof­fi­cial US sources in the cable, 7,805 have been UNHCR-registered as of July 1, 2006.

Sur­viv­ing under uncer­tain cir­cum­stances with very lit­tle money, uncer­tain pay­ment of wages, get­ting med­ical care in emer­gency sit­u­a­tions and fac­ing arrest and depor­ta­tion if caught by Malaysian author­i­ties, the unreg­is­tered Chin refugees are the most exploited refugees in Malaysia.

Inter­viewed by a trans­la­tor, a Chin refugee said that he would rather die in his present cir­cum­stances than go back to Burma. Burma must have given him hell before he left that country.

It will be a great bless­ing if the Samar­i­tan move by the United States to reset­tle the suf­fer­ing thou­sands of Chin refugees in Malaysia will hap­pen as learned from the cable.