No excuses: Stop violating refugees and asylum seekers — MWG

NOVEMBER 24 — The Migration Working Group (MWG) is deeply concerned about the abuse that refugees and asylum-seekers are subjected to in Malaysian detention centres, as highlighted in the recent Al Jazeera exposé.

Detention centres are overcrowded and in squalid conditions. Refugees and asylum-seekers are deprived of food, chained, handcuffed and beaten. Children and new mothers are also detained. Tragically, these gross violations of human rights have been happening in Malaysia’s detention centres for years. In May 2010, Ahmad Qanbar Ali, a refugee, died in detention due to insufficient medical care.

The exposé also revealed alleged fraud within United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), in which UNHCR cards are allegedly traded illegally by UNHCR representatives. UNHCR investigation into this allegation, and the investigation’s findings, must be transparent. And officials implicated must be held accountable.

What this story really exposes though, is the massive failure of the government to protect refugees and asylum-seekers, and worse still the government’s active violation of their rights. In doing so, the government is blatantly disregarding international human rights standards and obligations.

UNHCR issues refugee cards because the government fails to officially recognise the status of refugees, which is a requirement under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The convention is a widely accepted international standard — 145 countries have ratified it. Malaysia though, has not.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which officially visited Malaysia in 2011, recommended that the government end detention of refugees and asylum-seekers, stressing that “regardless of immigration status, nobody should be subjected to arbitrary detention or appalling detention conditions.”

The exposé found that women were “hauled in just hours after giving birth,” according to coverage by The Malaysian Insider. This is a sickening violation of Malaysia’s obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) — both of which Malaysia has ratified.

CEDAW General Recommendation No. 32 states that under CEDAW, women seeking asylum and women refugees must be granted, without discrimination, the right to accommodation, education, healthcare and other support. Pregnant or nursing mothers should not be detained.

Malaysia celebrates being elected to the Security Council; yet we shirk responsibility to uphold basic human rights of the marginalised in our own borders. Malaysia has no moral excuse. We must ratify the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol, implement the recommendations of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and fulfill our obligations to international human rights treaties, without delay.

The full Al Jazeera exposé, “Malaysia’s unwanted,” can be viewed on YouTube. 

* The Migration Working Group (MWG) is a network of Malaysian civil society groups and individuals who advocate for the rights of migrants, refugees, stateless persons, trafficked persons and foreign spouses.

- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com

Parliament to debate urgent motion on refugee mistreatment in Malaysia

LA LUMPUR, Nov 25 ― Federal lawmakers will debate today an emergency motion on the alleged mistreatment of refugees in Malaysia, following claims that refugees here have been made to purchase their United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) cards through corrupt means.

Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia said the motion, which was tabled by opposition lawmakers Lim Lip Eng and Ong Kian Ming yesterday, will be debated in the House at 4.30pm this evening.

Pandikar said the motion is urgent, in public interest and specific.

On Saturday, Steve Chao, senior presenter for Al-Jazeera’s Asian current affairs programme 101 East, who carried out a covert investigation, claimed refugee communities in the country have paid anything from RM1,700 to RM3,500 for each card, allegedly brokered by UNHCR officials in Malaysia.

Chao ― whose exclusive “Malaysia's Unwanted” first aired on the Qatar-based news broadcaster’s channel on Astro last week ― had gone undercover to visit the immigration detention centre in the national capital, posing as a priest to check on the abysmal conditions that refugees and asylum seekers have to endure.

Chao claimed that aside from the sale of UNHCR cards, there was also fraud involving some 3,000 asylum seekers who allegedly used false identities to jump the queue and gain early interviews with UNHCR staff to determine refugee status.

“About 1,000 of them, we understand have been resettled in countries like the US, Canada and Australia,” he said, while adding that the refugees interviewed knew that UNHCR services were supposed to be free of charge.

In an email interview, Chao told Malay Mail Online that UNHCR’S head Richard Towle was aware of the illegal activities and all resettlement of refugees was suspended in Malaysia for a period this year due to the investigation into fraudulent practices.

Lim, in the urgent motion today, noted that the documentary has also been widely reported in The Guardian and South China Morning Post.

“Seeing that Malaysia will be chairing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2015 - if the issue of refugees is badly managed ― will affect Malaysia's capability in effectively managing this responsibility,” said the Segambut DAP MP in his motion.

The Malaysian authorities have also acknowledged that they were aware of the “scandals” involving UNHCR in the country, and have urged the refugee agency to be “more transparent” and share information on refugees recognised by the UN, he added.

Contacted separately by Malay Mail Online, UNHCR Malaysia spokesman Yante Ismail said the refugee agency has a “zero tolerance policy” on corruption involving any of their processes or individuals or organisations working with it.

She stressed that they “take allegations of corruption very seriously”, which are investigated thoroughly if proven to have any credible basis and appropriate action taken if proven to be true.

In June, Malaysia was downgraded to the lowest ranking in the US state department's Trafficking in Persons (TiP) report indicating that the country had failed to comply with the most basic international requirements to prevent trafficking and protect victims within its borders.

Malaysia was relegated to Tier 3, and placed in the same category as countries under authoritarian regimes like Zimbabwe, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.

- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com

Refugees in Malaysia are ill-treated

MP SPEAKS Yesterday, the Speaker of Parliament allowed a one hour debate on the Al Jazeera 101 East documentary, titled “Malaysia’s Unwanted”, which was a shocking story on the mistreatment of refugees in Malaysia.

This debate was allowed under Motion 18 (1) of the Parliamentary Standing Orders because the speaker judged that this motion was specific; of public importance; and of immediate concern. The motion was filed by my colleague, Lim Lip Eng, the MP for Segambut.

Unfortunately, the reply of Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaffar showed that he is not aware of the seriousness of the accusations revealed in the Al Jazeera programme, even though he was interviewed in the programme.

In particular, Wan Junaidi’s response shows that he is totally ignorant of the articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) of which Malaysia is a signatory.

During yesterday’s debate, I pointed out two examples in the Al Jazeeradocumentary, of how Malaysia flouted the CRC.

Firstly, a Myanmar refugee was thrown in the lock-up not long after she had given birth and as such, was separated from her child.

Secondly, a refugee from Afghanistan put in a detention centre told the Al Jazeera reporter that he could only meet his son, who was also at the detention centre, once a month and that after a year in the detention centre, his son did not recognise him as his father. 

I also referred to 6 Articles in the UN CRC that were flouted in the two examples above, including Articles 4, 8, 9, 10, 20 and 22 (See below).

Wan Juniadi’s reply was that children have to be detained in the detention centres on humanitarian grounds so that they can be close to their parents.

This totally ignores the specific requirements set out in the CRC to protect the liberty of children, including that a child must only be detained as a measure of last resort and that they only be detained for the shortest appropriate time.

This was certainly not the case for the Afghan man whose child had been detained at the same detention centre for one year.

Detained child could not recognise father

In addition, the humanitarian grounds which the deputy minister referred to had been totally ignored in this instance, since the father only gets to see his son once a month and his son doesn’t even recognise him as the father!

It was revealing that the deputy minister failed to answer my specific question relating to the case of the Afghani refugee and his child. Perhaps Wan Junaidi has not even seen the documentary himself!

The plight of the refugees in detention centres is not new. Former Suhakam commissioner Chiam Heng Keng had highlighted this before in areport dated Dec 5, 2008.

Unfortunately, if this attitude of the Malaysian government is to continue to be in a state of denial over these issues, these problems will continue to the detriment of these refugees and Malaysia’s international reputation.

Appendix: List of relevant articles from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child:

Article 4: Parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognised in the present Convention.

Article 8: Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference.

Where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view to re-establishing speedily his or her identity.

Article 9: Parties shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against their will, except when competent authorities subject to judicial review determine, in accordance with applicable law and procedures, that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child.

Article 10: In accordance with the obligation of States Parties under Article 9, applications by a child or his or her parents to enter or leave a State Party for the purpose of family reunification shall be dealt with by States Parties in a positive, humane and expeditious manner. States Parties shall further ensure that the submission of such a request shall entail no adverse consequences for the applicants and for the members of their family.

Article 20: A child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment, or in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to remain in that environment, shall be entitled to special protection and assistance provided by the State.

Article 22: Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure that a child who is seeking refugee status or who is considered a refugee in accordance with applicable international or domestic law and procedures shall, whether unaccompanied or accompanied by his or her parents or by any other person, receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance in the enjoyment of applicable rights set forth in the present Convention and in other international human rights or humanitarian instruments to which the said States are Parties.

DR ONG KIAN MING is the DAP Member of Parliament for Serdang. He can be reached at im.ok.man@gmail.com

'No refugee forced to strip naked in Malaysia'

No refugee has been forced to be strip naked at immigration detention centres as claimed in a documentary by Al-Jazeera, said deputy home minister Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.

Rebutting the allegations, Wan Junaidi said that even if the detainees were required to strip naked for body checks, they would have been given a towel or sarong to cover themselves.

"Each person brought into the police or immigration detention centres must go through body checks.

“Women are checked by female officers and men by male officers. If it is necessary that all clothes be removed, the detainees will be given a towel or sarong and the check will be conducted in a room.

“It will not be done in the open," he said in his reply to points raised during debate on an emergency motion put in by Lim Lip Eng (DAP-Segambut) on the Al Jazeera report.

The personal dignity of each detainee, said Wan Junaidi, had been protected, adding that close attention was given to this matter.

Earlier, Lim had moved to adjourn the Parliament proceedings to discuss the Al Jazeera documentary titled "101 East: Malaysia's Unwanted" which was aired on Nov 19.

The documentary had carried interviews with refugees detained in an immigration detention centre alleging that, among others, police or Immigration officers had physically assaulted them and forced them to strip naked.

On allegations of physical assault, Wan Junaidi said that necessary action would be taken.

On claims of children being present in the detention centre, the deputy minister said those aged below three were allowed to be with their parents based on humanitarian grounds.

Building a future for Returning Refugees and Migrant workers in Myanmar

26 Nov 2014

CSR Asia has started a project recently in partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) Thailand. The project is established on the premise that whilst conditions do not yet exist for the organised mass return of refugees currently living in Thailand, sufficient resources and efforts should be invested to build preparedness activities for the eventual return of refugees and migrant workers to Myanmar as the country reforms and develops. CSR Asia and IRC believe that opportunities exist for the private sector to be involved on this issue, particularly for those who have operations in Myanmar.

To give some background on this issue, in 1984, the first major influx of refugees from Myanmar came to Thailand. Today, around 120,000 people live in nine refugee camps and as many as 2-3 million migrants are residing in Thailand. These groups of people left Myanmar for many reasons, including armed conflict, lack of access to key services (health, education and other social services) and a need to sustain livelihoods. For NGOs and development agencies serving refugees and migrant workers in Thailand, efforts and resources are being devoted to encourage them to become more self-reliant through training and development opportunities, and entrepreneurship development programmes.

An example is the work that IRC and its partner agencies are doing to provide formal training to refugees and migrants to become health workers (medics, nurses, midwives and community health workers), due to the severe lack of health services and qualified health professionals in Myanmar, particularly in the border regions. As a result of this, IRC in collaboration with camp-based organisation and more than 300 refugee health workers are currently the sole providers of health services in three refugee camps: Ban Mai Nai Soi and Ban Mae Surin in Mae Hong Son Province, and Tham Hin in Ratchaburi Province. In addition, with IRC’s focus on building preparedness activities for return to Myanmar, they have recently introduced a programme to further strengthen the skills and competencies of refugee and migrant health care workers by providing recognised healthcare training courses from accredited academic institutions. For example, IRC and the School of Global Studies at Thammasat University have worked together to introduce a training which leads to the attainment a Certificate in Public Health, recognised by the Myanmar Ministry of Health (MOH).

Whilst some refugees and migrant workers in Thailand remain resistant to the prospect of return to Myanmar, some remain relatively open to the idea with several reported to have returned to Myanmar to explore opportunities or permanently1. For IRC and CSR Asia, our position remains that for those who are interested in returning to Myanmar in future, training opportunities could be provided to ensure that their skills and knowledge are aligned with the needs of the labour market in Myanmar.

It is against this background that CSR Asia travelled to Yangon in October to engage with companies operating in Myanmar to understand more about their human resource needs and the willingness of the private sector to employ returned refugees and migrant workers in Myanmar. The engagement was valuable in terms of understanding more about their views on the issue as well as shedding light on some of the questions that companies had in regard to the voluntary return of refugees and migrant workers.

As a next step of the project, CSR Asia and IRC will be inviting leading companies operating in Myanmar to engage in a dialogue to identify ways to support refugees and migrant workers. The first meeting will be convened in January 2015 where IRC will provide an overview of the situation for refugees and migrant workers residing in Thailand as well as the opportunities and challenges for them to return voluntarily to Myanmar. IRC will also address the key questions that companies had during our discussion. These include “why do they want to come back to Myanmar?”, “what skills do they possess?”, “where do they want to settle?”, “what is their legal status in Myanmar?” and “how will refugees resettle back into society?”. CSR Asia will provide our perspective on the business case for companies to be engage on this issue and provide practical examples of how they can support this cause. This is the first time that such an endeavour has been launched in the region, and we hope that it will become a truly innovative, impactful and sustainable project for the future development of Myanmar. 

If any companies are interested in understanding more about this project, please feel free to get in touch with CSR Asia at Iris.Lui@csr-asia.com . 

Massive operation to flush out illegals in Camerons

Myanmar refugees and locals involved in illegal farming will not be spared

KUALA LUMPUR: A massive integrated operation to flush out illegal immigrants and locals involved in encroachment activities in Cameron Highlands will be carried out soon, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim said.

“A total of 4,500 Myanmar nationals with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ID cards working in Cameron Highlands will not be spared from prosecution if found to have violated the law,” he told reporters after chairing a special meeting on flash floods and landslides in Cameron Highlands at Parliament yesterday.

He added that UNHCR representatives had met and informed him that UNHCR card holders were not above the law.

“Rohingya refugees with UNHCR ID cards have been found working illegally on the Highlands,” he said.

Two days ago, 181 illegal immigrants were arrested for various offences in a “Gempak and Mesra” Ops by the Immigration Department in seven locations in Cameron Highlands.

As a follow up, agencies under the Home Ministry would also be deployed to track down agents believed to be offering a wide range of jobs and who cheat foreign workers.

In a mud flood and landslide incident in Cameron Highlands last Wednesday, five people died, including foreigners, while five others were injured.

– BERNAMA

UNHCR senior officers meet M'sian officials on refugee protection

KUALA LUMPUR: Senior officers from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) headquarters in Geneva and regional office in Bangkok visited Kuala Lumpur early this week and met with Malaysian ministers and government officials.

In Malaysia, some 150,000 refugees and asylum-seekers are registered with UNHCR, 93 per cent of whom are from Myanmar, including the Rohingya community who have been identified as having high protection needs, particularly among women and children.

According to UNHCR statement today, the high level delegation was in the region to assess the refugee situation in a number of countries, including Malaysia, and to explore the possibility of protection solutions.

During the meeting, they also discussed how to provide international protection for those groups most vulnerable, such as the Rohingya refugees, while looking at how best to manage other groups whose ongoing need for international protection is reducing, the statement said.

The delegation also explored possible options of transitioning some groups to labour migration schemes in the country.

Meanwhile, UNHCR Representative in Malaysia, Richard Towle, in the same statement said such arrangements would provide a win-win situation for all.

"The government would have the benefit of knowing who is in the territory and be able to reduce the criminality and exploitation associated with people in this situation, while the refugees would become more self-sufficient through employment, and the country would benefit from having a reliable and controlled workforce to fulfil foreign labour needs.

"UNHCR was encouraged by the positive and constructive discussions with the ministers and government officials, including Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi." – Bernama

IDP Resettlement Programmes to Restart in Karenni State

The government and the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) have jointly started building a standard village as part of a resettlement programme for internally displaced persons (IDPs) affected by the long-term civil war in Karenni State, according to Khu Plureh, the head of KNPPs Loikaw Liason Office.

The budget for building the village was approved on 31st March 2014, but building could only begin in September.

Khu Plureh said: “It should have been finished in September, but we could not do anything earlier because we had problems with transporting materials, but now we are working on the project.”

At the third union level meeting of the government and KNPP held in November 2013 seven agreements were made, one of which was to implement the village building and resettlement project.

The village will be built on the eastern bank of the Salween River where the Melayu River flows into the Salween in Has Taw Township.

Other projects are being jointly planned between the KNPP and other organisations to provide jobs and long-term livelihoods for IDPs.

As for worries about the security of standard villages Khu Plureh said: “Currently we do not know [about village security]. We cannot give any guarantees if a nationwide ceasefire agreement is not signed.”

A budget has yet to be approved for health and education services in the standard village building project, but the KNPP will discuss funding for those services with the government.

The Border and Ethnic Nationalities Development Department is funding the project and the cost of each house will be five million kyat (approx $5,000 USD) according to Koh Plureh.

He said: “We have already had the village designed and cleared the mines and the land for the houses with a bulldozer.”

Currently the project is 20 percent finished and the rest of the construction will be completed in December. Originally the project was planned to be 50 houses but it has now been reduced to 25 houses, he added.

The current size of the IDP population in all of Burma is unknown, but according to the Karenni Refugee Committee (KnRC) and the Border Constium (TBC), two organisations that assist refugees, there are about 15,000 Karenni refugees living as IDPs on the Burmese side of the Thai-Burma border.

Representatives from nine refugee camps based in Thailand held their biannual meeting from 25th to 26th September. Man Saw, the chairman of the KnRC told the Kantarawaddy Times that there had been no discussions about housing refugees from Thai refugee camps in standard villages. At present the refugees in Thailand have no pans to resettle in Burma yet.

The KNPPP has worked with TBC, the Norway Refugee Council (NRC), the Nippon Foundation and other individual donors to provide support and assistance for IDPs.

Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI

Umno-BN must stop blaming migrant workers & refugees

Arrested Refugees 

“Malaysia by virtue of being a member of the United Nations has subscribed to the philosophy, concepts and norms provided by the UDHR, which sets out the minimum and common standard of human rights for ALL PEOPLES and ALL NATIONS.” (Attorney General’s Chambers of Malaysia official website, 2014)

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s statement on the 9th of November 2014, lashing out at foreign workers who “encroached” on land causing muddy floods and landslides last Wednesday in Cameron Highlands is ill-conceived, xenophobic, illogical and completely misses the root causes of the problem. He also warned that refugees who are caught would not be spared from legal action.

Threatening, harassing and criminalizing migrants and refugees who work in Cameron Highlands does nothing to address the fundamental problems which led to this disaster. Instead, it diverts attention from the issue of illegal land clearing to ‘illegal’ migrant workers. Migrant workers and refugees are not responsible for the poor ‘planning and development policies’ which has spawned indiscriminate clearing of forest cover on hill slopes, widespread earthworks with no regard for erosion mitigation, haphazard construction of buildings, destruction of riparian reserves, and extensive use of “plastic houses” for plants without provision for controlled water run-off.

Hence the obvious questions which seems to have escaped the government are, “Who provides approval for land clearing? Why have illegal farms and plantations existed for so long?” Allegations have been made of politicians involved in allowing illegal land clearing in Cameron Highlands. Have these allegations been competently and transparently investigated? Who is benefitting from this chronic destruction of our hill-slopes?

Mass arrests, harassment, violence by authorities

What we are witnessing instead is a massive crackdown on migrant workers and refugees who have been toiling in difficult and dangerous work conditions, contributing enormously to the economy of the country. While it is true that there are thousands of foreign workers and refugees on Cameron Highlands, they are not there on vacation. They are there doing work in conditions which few Malaysians are prepared to do. Many of the undocumented migrant workers in Cameron Highlands are victims of the government’s (2012) 6P legalization process. In spite of the overwhelming response by undocumented workers to regularize their status through the 6P process, many remain undocumented. Tenaganita has handled cases of over 5000 migrant workers who have been cheated of thousands of ringgit each by government appointed agents, many of whom were not only given fake registration papers but who never had their passports returned to them.

What is the government doing about agents who not only cheat migrant workers but also make lucrative profits by bringing them in to work without proper work permits?

During a Fact Finding Mission to Cameron Highlands by Tenaganita from the 15 – 16 November 2014, it was uncovered that many of the workers were employed by outsourcing companies and labour contractors. These are key factors in the trafficking of persons for labour in Malaysia, a fact that the Malaysian government has been made aware repeatedly. In 2011 however, the Employment Act was ammended to include both labour contractors and outsourcing companies as legitimate employers; a measure seen by Tenaganita as institutionalizing this practice of human trafficking. We also discovered that there have been arrests of not only undocumented migrants but also of documented migrants, Permanent Residents (PR) and holders of student visas. The indiscriminate arrests that have been taking place seem to suggest that the authorities view every (non-Caucasian) foreigner as an undocumented worker.

Why should migrant workers, permanent residents and foreign students who hold legitimate documents be arrested? 

A foreign student who made a trip to Cameron Highlands to visit his uncle was arrested during the raid and detained for 12 days. He said “I have been put in jail and have a police record right now. In future, when they ask for my criminal record clearance, I will fail it. So, what is going to happen to my future now?”

It was also learnt that migrants who held PR status and those married to local Malaysians had their premises used as temporary holding centers during the raids, causing them not just business losses but also humiliation. Authorities who conduct raids were often dressed in civilian clothes; it sets a precedent for imposters masquerading as immigration or police officers to prey on foreign workers.

Migrants interviewed stated that the officers “acted arrogantly” with no regard for their rights and dignity. Some workers had their mobile phones confiscated or damaged, rendering it impossible for them to contact their employers to verify their documentation status. Tenaganita was also informed that those arrested were insulted verbally. In addition to these violations, the homes and personal belongings of many refugee communities in Cameron Highlands were destroyed during the raids.

Inside the cell, those detained were given a very thin piece of blanket (often infested with bugs) which they were only allowed to use between 10pm – 7am. The holding cells did not have proper ventilation and the smell of the open toilet inside the cell was unbearable. They were cold and dehydrated. They were only allowed to have 3 glasses of fluids each day.

Death in police custody

On the 7th of November, Mr. Leaket Ali, a Bangladeshi national arrested in Ringlet died in detention. He was a documented migrant. His employer came to release him after 24 hours of his arrest but the police refused to release him from their custody. On his third day at detention, he developed a cold, stomach ache and dizziness. He requested to see a doctor but his requests fell on deaf ears. Finally, when his condition became worse, the police took him to a doctor but he never recovered. Mr Ali passed away that night in his cell. His blanket was then given to another detainee for use without first being washed.

Tenaganita is appalled by the gross human rights violations that is perpetrated by the government authorities in Cameron Highlands, purportedly to address the problem of massive flooding and land slides . We call on the Malaysian government to address the fundamental causes of the problem with urgency. The government needs to redeem itself with humility based on feedback from the Rakyat, civil society organizations and international institutions to ensure that we, as a nation, meet the global standards of ethical conduct, and respect the rights and dignity of all workers.

We therefore urge the government to:

put an immediate stop to the indiscriminate arrests taking place in Cameron Highlands

conduct an independent investigation into the death of Mr. Leaket Ali in police custody and the human rights violations perpetrated by the authorities during the raids, arrest and detention of foreign workers and refugees in Cameron Highlands;

identify and act decisively against those responsible for illegal land clearing, including politicians, local authority officers, state government officers and Federal government officers;

hold both employers, and agents accountable for rendering migrant workers undocumented;

repeal the illogical policy and discriminatory practice which makes it illegal for refugees to work for a living. -

Tenaganita

Full article: http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com

Why Malaysia should ratify the international refugee convention?

Refugee issue has been a global issue due to the conflicts in the world that jeopardise the lives of people and it is also affecting Malaysia. There are some 35,000 unregistered asylum-seekers as well as 143,435 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia as of end March 2014. Currently, without recognition of the refugee status by the Malaysian government, the refugees in Malaysia are constantly being harassed, ill-treated and denied their fundamental rights because of their lack of official status. Therefore, as one of the non-permanent members of United Nations Security Council, ratification of the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol by Malaysia is very important to provide protection to the refugees and asylum seekers in this country by avoiding arbitrary arrest and detention as well as to facilitate in resettling refugees. This ratification is a major step forward to ensure that human rights are being upheld in line with the Malaysian government’s “wasatiyyah” or moderation and balance approach.

Refugees in Malaysia

People who fled from their home countries because of fear of persecution are called asylum-seekers and refugees and they seek refuge in other countries including Malaysia. There is a difference between asylum-seekers and refugees. Those who seek refuge are considered asylum-seekers and they will be granted refugee status once proven to be genuine refugees after being processed. Unlike internally displaced persons (IDP), asylum-seekers and refugees fled not just from their hometowns but also from their home countries by crossing an international border.

They are always mistakenly believed to be economic migrants or illegal migrants who came to this country just to seek better employment opportunities when the fact is that they are proven to be at risk of being presecuted. The refugees in Malaysia comprise of 133,070 people from Myanmar, 4,216 Sri Lankans, 1,139 Somalis, 902 Syrians, 776 Iraqis, 319 Afghans, and others from other countries. Out of these refugees, around 70% are men, while 30% are women.

For the past 40 years, Malaysia has become a destination for the refugees to seek either temporary or permanent refuge from the devastating conflicts although it is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. In the past, this has included Filipino refugees from Mindanao arriving during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees during the 1980s and 1990s, a small number of Bosnian refugees in the early 1990s, and Indonesians from the Province of Aceh in the early 2000s. However, after Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA) ended in 2001, there is no more formal written agreement between UNHCR and the Malaysian government to handle refugee status determination process. 

At the moment, the fate of asylum-seekers and refugees is uncertain because the Malaysian authorities do not distinguish between asylum-seekers/refugees and illegal migrants. Moreover, under Article 6 of the 1959/1963 Immigration Act, any person who enters the country without valid documentation will be severely punished regardless whether he or she is a refugee or not.

Following are the reasons why Malaysia should sign and ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol.

1. To fulfil human rights obligations

Recently, Malaysia’s commitment to world’s peace and security was recognised by the global community by being elected as one of the UN Security Council non-permanent members and Malaysia is also a member of the UN Human Rights Council as well as signatory to the UN Convention. One of the important aspects to keep the world in order is to uphold human rights of every mankind. By signing and ratifying the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, it is a major step forward to give protection to the refugees. With this framework, it shows Malaysia’s commitment and this will guide Malaysia towards giving protection to the refugees who have already faced threats. Furthermore, Malaysia was a member of UNHCR from 1993 till 1998 and was also elected as Chair of the 52nd session of the UNHCR in 1995. While Malaysia is passionate in helping refugees in Palestine and Syria, it should not forget that giving protection to refugees on the Malaysian soil is equally urgent and imperative too. It shows how sincere Malaysia is in helping to mitigate the problems faced by refugees regardless where they come from with no biasness or favouritism.

2. To avoid arrest, detention and prosecution of refugees

Pasukan Sukarelawan Malaysia (Rela) was established on January 11, 1972, with the effective of (Essential Powers) Emergency Act 1964 – Essential Rules (Ikatan Relawan Rakyat) (Amendment) 2005 to enable the masses to volunteer in preserving the national peace and security. Rela has the power to enforce immigration law including arresting and detaining illegal migrants which the Malaysian Bar Council opposed through a motion at its Annual General Meeting on 17 March 2007. Crackdowns by poorly trained volunteer Rela officers tend to violate the due process of law because they can detain and arrest the undocumented migrants including refugees who hold UNHCR card without a warrant.

Currently, of the three durable solutions – local integration, voluntary repatriation and resettlement in third countries, the last option is often the most viable for many refugees in as Malaysia becomes a transit country for temporary protection. By recognising the status of refugees, Malaysian authorities can facilitate UNHCR in resettling them to receiving countries like what happened in the 1970s and 1980s with the 255, 000 Vietnamese boat people who were placed at eight refugee camps in Malaysia. Even though Malaysia is not a state party to the Refugee Convention, Malaysia is still bound by customary international law and therefore it must respect the principle of non-refoulement which means that it cannot return the refugees to where they are at risk or in danger.

3.To safeguard refugee children’s fundamental human rights

To date, there are some 29,996 children below the age of 18 and they are denied their fundamental human rights due to their unofficial status. Article 22 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which Malaysia signed and ratified in February 1995, specifically requires member states to provide appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance to refugee children. The refugee children in Malaysia grow up with minimal safety because they may be arrested by immigration authorities. A 13 year-old-boy from Myanmar, Ahmad (not his real name) was arrested and put in a crowded cell with adult men for 6 months. Apart from not being given enough food and water, he was also being caned as the amended Immigration Act (Section 6) in 2002 sets out that all non-citizens with no valid documentation ‘shall also be liable to whipping of not more than six strokes’ and can be put at the detention centres indefinitely.

In a nutshell, protecting the rights of asylum-seekers and refugees has become a duty for everyone including Malaysia as this issue has been ongoing for so long. As a member of the UN Security Council, Malaysia should take a progressive step in recognising and addressing the plight of the asylum-seekers and refugees as part of its obligation and effort to maintain world’s peace and security. Of course, more needs to be done than just signing and ratifying 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. However, the ratification of this convention and protocol can at least avoid arbitrary arrest and detention as well as to facilitate the refugees to being resettled. – November 19, 2014.

*Aslam Abd Jalil reads The Malaysian Insider.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider. 

- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Al Jazeera zooms in on alleged abuse of refugees in Malaysian detention centres

An exclusive report by Al Jazeera claims children are among refugees in detention centres in Malaysia. – Pic courtesy of Al Jazeera, November 20, 2014

Malaysia's treatment of refugees has come under the spotlight again following an Al Jazeera news report which highlights the horrendous conditions and exploitation of refugees in prison as well as corrupt dealings by local United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) staff.

In a yet-to-be-aired 101 East programme, titled "Malaysia's Unwanted", senior presenter and reporter Steve Chao went undercover as a priest to gain access into the "notorious" detention centres where refugees who are arrested are placed.

According to UNHCR, there are some 150,000 refugees who have fled from their home countries to Malaysia, hoping to be relocated to a third country.

However, Malaysia, which has recently been elected as one of the UN Security Council non-permanent members, has refused to sign the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol to recognise the status of refugees.

Therefore, refugees are not allowed to work or even go to school, which has prompted them to set up their own community centres for their children's education.

They can also be detained at any time and placed into the already overcrowded detention centres where Chao found them living in squalid conditions.

The report showed Chao's encounters with dozens of refugees inside these facilities, many of whom are chained and handcuffed and others who have not eaten for days.

He also found women who were hauled in just hours after giving birth and children, which is a violation of the UN Convention on Child Rights.

Refugees are kept in their cramped cells all day long and some revealed to Chao that they had been forced to strip naked in front of others and are then beaten, slapped and kicked while one former detainee tells the Al Jazeera journalist that he had been subject to abuse with a steel pole.

Although Malaysian authorities have admitted that abuse cases do happen in the detention centres, Putrajaya has maintained that the conditions are better than in other countries.

Chao also unearthed an illegal trade in UNHCR registration cards, headed by a local representative.

"All the money from this activity goes into the pockets of some top guys in the UN. We have been doing this with him for a long time. We are thieves, and we look for thieves above us," a UN translator was quoted as saying.

The UNHCR mission in Malaysia have been overwhelmed with refugees seeking help as more than 1,000 refugees and asylum seekers come to their office every day.

“We’re like an accident and emergency hospital, not a general hospital. In an accident and emergency hospital you make tough decisions all the time about triaging and prioritising who is the neediest of the people in an already needy group of people," Richard Towle, who leads the UNHCR mission, said. – November 20, 2014.

* 101 East’s ‘Malaysia's Unwanted’ airs from Thursday 20 November at 2230 GMT (6.30am Friday, Kuala Kumpur).

Born and jailed in Malaysia: A refugee's fear

Born and jailed in Malaysia: A refugee's fear

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Still elated by the birth of their first child, the couple prepared to leave the maternity ward of Kuala Lumpur General Hospital. But when Sin Sin, 29, and her husband Za Tim, 32, stepped out of the hospital lift with their two-day-old son, immigration officers were waiting.

Forcibly separating them from Za Tim - a refugee from Myanmar registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia - the officers bundled the mother and child into a waiting vehicle and drove them to a barren lock-up, with limited access to water and no medical care.

"I can't express what was going through my mind," Sin Sin recalled in an interview with Al Jazeera, her now six-month old son, chubby legged, smiling and curious, secured on her hip with a blue sarong.

"I was crying, the baby was crying. It was very traumatic."

Sin Sin is just one of a number of asylum seekers of different nationalities detained here after giving birth since the start of the year.

"It is shocking," said Katrina Maliamauv, who works with refugee and migrant women at Tenaganita, a Malaysian NGO. "There's already fear within many communities. This could encourage women to give birth in unsafe conditions."

Illegal and vulnerable

Malaysian immigration law makes no distinction between undocumented migrants, asylum seekers or refugees; all are considered illegal and vulnerable to detention and deportation.

Nor is Malaysia a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees. As foreigners, most are expected to pay full fees for medical care, although those registered as refugees with the UNHCR are able to get a 50 percent discount.

Sin Sin left her village in Myanmar's remote Chin state in 2013 to join her husband, who'd fled to Malaysia to escape a life portering for the military. The couple had asked the UN to add Sin Sin to her husband's card and was waiting for an appointment.

"I felt great pain in my heart," Za Tim said as he recalled the day his wife and son were taken away from him.

While in lock-up, Sin Sin had no clothing or nappies for her son. Instead, she wrapped him in a longyi - a Burmese-style sarong - she'd brought with her to the hospital for the birth. They slept together on the concrete floor of the cell they shared with a group of Indonesian women. After four days, she was transferred to the Bukit Jalil Detention Centre on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

Although it is considered one of the country's more modern immigration detention facilities, Sin Sin said conditions were poor. Detainees were expected to buy food and, with no money of her own, Sin Sin relied on the kindness of the women with whom she was sharing a cell.

Her husband, a wiry man who has a job servicing air conditioners, was distraught.

"I was so worried," he said in an interview in the apartment they share with two other families in the city centre. "I couldn't think. I couldn't eat or sleep."

In the end, he sought the help of people in his community, who then contacted the UN. It took another month-and-a-half before his family was finally released.

Community groups and NGOs representing people from Myanmar, the Middle East and Sri Lanka said they are aware of a number of cases of women without formal documentation detained after giving birth at the general hospital with some spending more than three months in detention.

The issue is expected to be on the agenda of Dainius Puras, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, during his visit to Malaysia, which concludes in early December.

The General Hospital's maternity wing is a busy but efficiently run operation that encourages breast-feeding among new mothers and bans baby bottles on the wards.

Yet, Sin Sin and others that Al Jazeera spoke to say the poor diet in detention prevented them from breast-feeding. Sin Sin said she had no choice, but to give her son water for the first month of his life because there was no formula milk either. Other mothers say basic necessities such as nappies were rationed.

Slow-moving change

Malaysia's Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar admitted the detention of such vulnerable women and children contravenes the Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which Malaysia is a signatory. He said the government would like to see such cases out of detention as soon as possible.

"We would like to do our best," he told Al Jazeera in an interview. "But because of constraints of space, time and things like that, it is not as fast as we'd like it to be."

Hospital staff declined to discuss the detentions with Al Jazeera. Privately, health administrators have raised concern that non-citizens - Malaysia has an estimated two million undocumented migrants - are putting a strain on resources meant mainly for Malaysians. 

"Immigration policies of arresting and detaining such vulnerable women, especially at the time of childbirth, make Malaysia and its policies appear cruel and inhumane," Kuala Lumpur-based Health Equity Initiatives wrote in a press statement in April.

"Such healthcare practises do not reflect the regard for science and evidence that underline Ministry of Health policies in terms of maternal health."

The statement was endorsed by eight other NGOs working on health, refugee and women's rights.

Groups that work with migrants are advising women without refugee cards to avoid the general hospital, but the detentions have only added to the difficulty of those trying to survive in a country that barely recognises their existence.

"It makes people very scared," said Josie Tey, a coordinator with the Archdiocesan Office for Human Development, which is overseen by the Catholic Church, and provides assistance to migrants and refugees.

"What happened to our caring heart? Where's it gone?"

https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com

Refugee status being sold for up to RM3,500 in Malaysia, claims Al-Jazeera repor

Burmese Refugees in a Malaysia Detention Center 

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 ― There is an alleged market for securing refugee status through illegitimate means in Malaysia, with United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) cards being sold for thousands of ringgit, according to an Al-Jazeera investigation report.

Steve Chao, senior presenter for Al-Jazeera’s Asian current affairs programme 101 East who carried out a covert investigation claimed refugee communities in the country have paid anything from RM1,700 to RM3,500 for each card, allegedly brokered by UNHCR officials in Malaysia.

“UNHCR’S head Richard Towle says he has heard of such illegal activities, and that if a complaint is brought forward, it is investigated by an independent body out of Geneva,” Chao told Malay Mail Online in an email interview last night.

“Sources inside the UNHCR office in Malaysia tell us that an investigation has been conducted specifically looking at fraudulent activities of UNHCR staff. Towle also confirmed that for a period this year, all resettlement of refugees was suspended in Malaysia due to the investigation into fraudulent practices,” he added.

Chao ― whose exclusive “Malaysia's Unwanted” first aired on the Qatar-based news broadcaster’s channel on Astro earlier this morning ― had gone undercover to visit the immigration detention centre in the national capital, posing as a priest to check on the abysmal conditions that refugees and asylum seekers have to endure.

Roma Hattu, a heavily pregnant Rohingya Muslim woman who has been displaced by sectarian violence, grimaces as she goes into labour on the floor of a former rubber factory now serving as her family's shelter near Sittwe, Burma Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Chao claimed that aside from the sale of UNHCR cards, there was also fraud involving some 3,000 asylum seekers who allegedly used false identities to jump the queue and gain early interviews with UNHCR staff to determine refugee status.

“About 1,000 of them, we understand have been resettled in countries like the US, Canada and Australia,” he said, while adding that the refugees interviewed knew that UNHCR services were supposed to be free of charge.

Chao said Towle had told him that “he has heard of such illegal activities”, and that resettlement of refugees has been suspended in Malaysia due to investigations into fraudulent practices.

The Malaysian authorities also acknowledged that they were aware of the “scandals” involving UNHCR in the country, urging the refugee agency to be “more transparent” and share information on refugees recognised by the UN, he added.

Contacted separately by Malay Mail Online, UNHCR Malaysia spokesman Yante Ismail said the refugee agency has a “zero tolerance policy” on corruption involving any of their processes or individuals or organisations working with it.

She stressed that they “take allegations of corruption very seriously”, which are investigated thoroughly if proven to have any credible basis and appropriate action taken if proven to be true.

“UNHCR is aware of some allegations of fraud arising from its operation in Malaysia. These are being treated with the seriousness they require under the organisation's rules and procedures,” she told Malay Mail Online in an email interview yesterday.

Yante noted that refugees are constantly reminded that UNHCR services are offered free of charge, and encouraged them to immediately report any allegations of fraud.

Yante added that the UNHCR is saddled with a “large and unregulated” number of refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia, raising numerous challenges in providing them the necessary protection.

“UNHCR is in regular discussions with the Government to see how the protection of refugees can be improved and strengthened.

“(In) particular we believe the protection of refugees is best achieved through closer cooperation between UNHCR and the Government of Malaysia, particularly to find viable alternatives to detention,” Yante said.

- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com

Q&A: Malaysia's refugees and asylum seekers

Richard Towle, UNHCR's representative for Malaysia, discusses the plight of 150,000 refugees [Al Jazeera]

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Nearly 150,000 refugees and asylum seekers are registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia, which operates in the country even though it is not a signatory to key international conventions on refugees and migrants.

Most fled from Myanmar, but others escaped conflict in countries such as Sri Lanka, Syria, and Somalia. They make up one of the largest groups of so-called urban refugees in the world.

Every day some 1,000 people visit the UN compound, a warren-like collection of temporary buildings around an old colonial bungalow in Kuala Lumpur. 

Al Jazeera: What's your assessment of how refugees are treated here in Malaysia?

Richard Towle: It's a fairly mixed report card. Refugees don't have legal rights in Malaysia, as they don't in Thailand or Indonesia. Refugees are treated as illegal migrants, and illegal migrants are at risk of all forms of vulnerability in society. They are liable to be arrested and detained and live in a grey or dark zone of society where there is a high degree of exploitation or abuse.

Al Jazeera: What is your biggest concern here in terms of the refugees: their rights, their ability to be protected?

Towle: I think if you asked a refugee that question, the resounding answer [would be] the lack of a future. They have no hope. They can't go home. They're unable to move anywhere else. Their lives are totally on hold.

Al Jazeera: They also face the risk of detention. What concerns do you have there?

Towle: We have established a strong relationship with the government to negotiate the release of people of concern to us from detention. Sometimes that happens quickly, and sometimes it takes a very long time. There are about 5,000 people of concern to our office currently in detention and, of that, there are a large number of women and children.

Al Jazeera: If Malaysia is detaining children, is it living up to its international obligations as a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?

Towle: Malaysia hasn't signed up to many of the international human rights treaties. It hasn't signed the 1951 Refugee Convention. But there are ways in which all people should be treated - fairly and decently - and we think it's not necessary in the interests of law enforcement to keep women and children and vulnerable people in detention. At a human level, detention [is] very damaging to psychosocial and indeed physical health. 

Al Jazeera: People who've been released from detention have told us of beatings, abuse and deprivation. What is the UN doing about this?

Towle: We're aware of a number of stories of harsh and tough physical conditions inside immigration detention and police facilities. There have been a number of deaths in one of the detention centres over the past six to nine months in Malaysia, and that causes us considerable concern. We think that detention facilities should have an oversight body, which is able to access these places to look precisely at those sorts of questions.

How are people being treated? Are they getting access to food? Are they getting access to healthcare? Are they able to get visits from their loved ones and messages in and out of the place? 

They may have transgressed some regulations and laws about migration status, but at the end of the day they're ordinary people and they're entitled to be treated in a humane and fair way. 

Al Jazeera: Some of the refugees we spoke to said they'd been in detention for six months, some two years. One said as long as five. Why is it taking the UNHCR so long to get people freed?

Towle: Part of the answer is resources. There are probably 5,000 people in detention at the moment. We get access to some of them. We don't get access to all of them. If we brought all of our resources to bear tomorrow to get people out, we'd get a percentage out. It's a very long and labour-intensive exercise to go to some of these detention centres, to conduct an interview, to be satisfied they meet our criteria as refugees.

Al Jazeera: We're told that for some people coming to Malaysia today that the first opportunity for an interview is in 2017. Is this fair?

Towle: I don't think that's a fair characterisation of what's happening. We have a way of fast-tracking cases - unaccompanied children, victims of gender-based violence, for example, so we can prioritise and escalate. If somebody presents from a part of the community where they're not in a life-threatening situation and can cope on their own for a while, we won't be prioritising their interview because we don't have the resources.

Al Jazeera: But the mandate is clear - to protect asylum seekers. Considering the realities, is the UN failing refugees here in Malaysia?

Towle: The UNHCR is doing its best. We've got finite resources. They're not getting bigger. We don't have much support from the state. We have relatively weak civil society engagement. It is quite clear that UNHCR is not able to provide the level of support, and that's why we have to prioritise.

If the international community doesn't give us the tools to do the job effectively, then we have to do as best we can with what we have. That applies to Malaysia, Myanmar - even Syria.

http://www.aljazeera.com

Myanmese refugees made to pay US$1000 to stay in Malaysia

Refugees and asylum seekers from Myanmar are paying up to US$1,000 for UNHCR cards granting them official refugee status in Malaysia, an Al-Jazeera investigation has found.

Officials have been recorded openly describing themselves as "thieves" for brokering the illegal trade of registration documents.

"All the money from this activity goes into the pockets of some top guys in the UN," a UN translator claimed in Al-Jazeera's current affairs programme 101 East. "We have been doing this … for a long time. We are thieves, and we look for thieves above us."

Presenter Steve Chao posed as a priest in order to visit squalid detention centres in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, where he interviewed dozens of refugees and asylum seekers, some of them Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, for Malaysia's Unwanted, which aired last week.

Interviewees said they faced police harassment and exploitation, were barred from work or sending their children to school, and lived in abysmal conditions: some refugees were beaten, chained, handcuffed, and had not been fed for days.

Some 150,000 refugees and asylum seekers live in Malaysia - nearly all from Myanmar - but because Malaysia is not party to the UN's 1951 Refugee Convention or the 1967 protocol recognising refugees, they are vulnerable to abuse and foul play by authorities, rights groups say.

All UN High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR) services should be provided for free.

Malaysia's UNHCR mission - which sees more than 1,000 refugees and asylum seekers daily - is reportedly overwhelmed by the sheer number of those in need, with mission leader Richard Towle. "You make tough decisions all the time about triaging and prioritising who is the neediest of the people in an already needy group of people," he said.

A UNHCR Malaysia spokeswoman said the agency was aware of the claims and had a "zero-tolerance policy" on corruption. Resettlement operations were reportedly suspended earlier this year to investigate the claims.

The UN General Assembly's human-rights committee has approved a resolution urging Myanmar to allow its persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority "access to full citizenship on an equal basis".

The committee adopted the resolution by consensus, though Myanmar's ambassador objected to the UN's use of the term "Rohingya", saying it "will only pose a barrier on the road to solving this important issue".

Myanmar's 1.3 million Rohingya have been denied citizenship and have almost no rights. Authorities want to officially categorise them as "Bengalis", implying they are illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. Those who refuse become candidates for detainment and deportation.

The government's "action plan" would soon be released, Myanmese Ambassador Tim Kyaw told the committee.

The European Union-drafted, non-binding resolution is one piece of international pressure on the predominantly Buddhist country to change its approach. The resolution now goes to the UN General Assembly.

Attacks by Buddhist mobs have left hundreds dead and 140,000 trapped in camps, and other Rohingya are fleeing the country.

But last week, President Thein Sein told Voice of America radio that reports the Rohingya were fleeing alleged torture were a "media fabrication".

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article

Lawyer: Malaysia must show world it treats refugees well

A screen grab of the Al Jazeera documentary which sees a Myanmar refugee crying as she speaks to a relative over a handphone.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22, 2014:

Despite priding itself as a progressive country, Malaysia’s treatment of asylum seekers is reason for embarrassment.

Lawyers for Liberty’s executive director Eric Paulsen said this in response to a 26-minute documentary entitled Malaysia’s Unwanted by Al Jazeera, which portrayed the harsh reality allegedly faced by refugees at the hands of Malaysian authorities.

“The predicament and persecution faced by the refugees in this country are the reason Malaysia has been branded among the top 10 worst countries for refugees to seek refuge in.

“We are sitting in the United Nations Security Council and, therefore, it is incumbent that we show the world we can treat people, wherever they are from, with the highest level of humanity,” he told The Rakyat Post.

In the documentary, refugees waiting for their asylum to be approved were seen being arrested and detained in an immigration detention centre here, where their basic rights and necessities were stripped away from them.

Paulsen said the government must bear in mind that the refugees were those who had no other choice but to flee their war-torn countries and who had been exposed to all sorts of physical harm.

It is for this reason that he called on the government to be kind towards the refugees.

“Just because they are in detention, it doesn’t mean that they should be mistreated to the point of having dirty toilet water as the only source to stay hydrated. They also shouldn’t be beaten or be stripped of their dignity.”

The exclusive, which was aired on Friday morning, revealed that even children were being held in the detention centre, which according to Paulsen was a clear violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which Malaysia is one of its signatories.

Paulsen explained that as a member, who had agreed to the provisions provided by the convention, the country must ensure it acted in accordance with the standards applied and, hence, should not have allowed any children to be detained, including their mothers.

He said even though as a sovereign state, Malaysia had the right to ensure only those lawful were free to move around, it was important to take into account the international law provisions on refugees and asylum seekers.

Paulsen said asylum seekers were a special category of persons who required international protection as they were fleeing prosecution.

He cited the Myanmar Rohingya refugees as an example of people running away from a slow genocide that was taking place in their country.

“They, just like us, have children, families and dreams. Why can’t we help them achieve those dreams instead of treating them like criminals?”

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low, when contacted, said he would comment on the matter next week.

Read more: http://www.therakyatpost.com

Are undocumented migrants the sole cause of disease spread in Malaysia?

The government and the MMA could curb the spread of contagious diseases by opening up accessibility to medical treatment and health care for all, without discrimination, says Angeline Loh.

Chin refugees from Burma in Malaysia – Photo credit: hmanthlak picasa

In late September, the Malaysian Medical Association expressed its worry over the ‘rise in infectious diseases’ brought in and spread by migrants illegally entering the country (theSun, 29 September 2014).

Although it is true that health-screening measures imposed by the government are inadequate to stem the spread of infectious diseases carried by foreigners illegally entering Malaysia, the MMA president’s statement is somewhat sweeping. It fails to take account of the difficulty undocumented migrants face in seeking medical treatment at public hospitals.

It is common knowledge that foreigners are required to pay hospital fees set at over 100 per cent more than what locals have to pay for out- or in-patient treatment at government hospitals. Even if Malaysians are exempted from paying for minor treatment, foreigners are not exempted from having to fork out at least RM10 for the same minor medical treatment or check up.

Pregnant foreign women are charged over RM1,000 for normal delivery of their babies, whilst surgery and other more complex treatment can run into tens of thousands of ringgit or more. For foreign workers, the ability to meet these costs depends on their employers. Sustaining injury in an employment-related accident will determine their future ability to earn a living. Some may be sent home with or without proper medical treatment, damaging forever their capacity to make a living and live a normal life.

If foreign workers who have legal status here face such uncertainty in receiving adequate and proper medical treatment, accessibility to medical treatment for undocumented migrants in public hospitals is far more difficult.

Government policy and immigration regulations which render undocumented migrants ‘illegal’ pose barriers to accessing proper medical treatment. The first obstacle to medical attention is the foreigners’ charge i.e. the high medical fees imposed on foreign patients across the board without any consideration of economic means. Second, the threat of arrest and detention in an immigration detention camp, police lock-up or prison, if they fail to meet demands by the hospital for payment.

Even refugees under the protection of the United Nations refugee agency do not find access to medical treatment easy. The denial of the right to engage in proper employment to support themselves and their families keeps many of them impoverished, having to depend on doing odd jobs or daily paid temporary work, without any protection under labour law.

Without the means to pay for necessary medical treatment, many choose to stay away from government hospitals, where even the 50 per cent discount on foreigners’ fees for confirmed refugees doesn’t lighten the financial burden on their meagre resources.

Private practitioners who may open their clinics to UNHCR-registered refugees are small in number, and non-governmental organisations providing medical treatment also have limited capacity. Arguably, international organisations like Doctors without Borders (MSF) may provide much needed medical facilities to refugees.

But this depends on the whim of national administrations and conditions demanded for permission to operate within a country’s borders. MSF also looks to its own protocols and SOP (standard operating procedures) in prioritising needs in a country. So, there is no certainty that refugees can have ready access to medical treatment or even basic health care in Malaysia.

Moreover, the legal status of confirmed refugees and asylum seekers remains an anomaly under Malaysian law, which still views them as “illegal immigrants” despite the UNHCR official they hold. They are thus as vulnerable to arrest and detention in secure facilities as undocumented migrants.

In existing circumstances, where accessibility to medical treatment and basic health care hinge on the ability to pay, the quality of treatment given to foreign as well as local patients is questionable. Regrettably, there have allegedly been incidents of government hospitals refusing to treat terminally ill foreign patients, who are merely sent home with pain killers or antibiotics, apparently without any understandable explanation.

If Malaysia’s migration policies and laws continue to deny easy and ready access to health services, making medicine-for-profit a top priority, the infectious diseases may be more likely to be spread across borders. Blaming undocumented migrants entering the country for the spread of infectious diseases is only dabbling in useless rhetoric of no help to citizens or foreigners within these borders.

In view of the current Ebola epidemic in West Africa being carried by returnees or visitors to the United States and Europe, the need for better health screening and easier access to medical services for all, including undocumented migrants, is urgent. This would also serve to closely monitor the entry of other infectious diseases possibly brought into the country, not only by migrants from other countries but also by returnees to Malaysia from overseas.

The government and the MMA should be more proactive in their efforts to eliminate the spread of contagious diseases by opening up accessibility to medical treatment and health care for all, without discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, immigration status, or religion.

As affordability plays a large role in the decision to seek medical treatment, this obstruction to accessing health services in government hospitals and clinics should be replaced by subsidised or free services to bring down costs for patients. Subsidies for health services would be taxpayers’ money well spent for the good of the rakyat and the country as a whole.

http://aliran.com