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Posted on 6 October 2016 - 04:35pm

Last updated on 6 October 2016 - 08:19pm

G.Surach

newsdesk@thesundaily.com

KUALA LUMPUR: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Malaysia and healthcare provider Qualitas Medical Group today launched - "One Clinic, One Community, Qualitas Refugee Health Programme", to provide refugees primary healthcare which will in turn reduce spread of infection from communicable diseases.

The subsidised health service will be provided at any one of Qualitas 80 clinics nationwide.

Qualitas chairman and managing director Datuk Dr Noorul Ameen Mohamed Ishack said their aim was to provide medical services to these marginalised communities, and stop spread of communicable diseases to support the overall health of Malaysians.

"The programme will help address the primary healthcare issues faced by the refugee communities here in Malaysia," he said during the launch and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing between both groups at the Federal Hotel, here, today.

Having met representatives of the refugee community organisations for a briefing on the health programme, last week, Noorul said Qualitas for the past month has been piloting the health programme in four of its clinics close to large numbers of refugees.

"With the launch, Qualitas will extend the programme to all its other primary healthcare clinics throughout Malaysia," he added.

UNCHR's Malaysian representative Richard Towle said the programme will improve the welfare of refugee families.

"Life for refugees in Malaysia is very difficult. Because they are considered as illegal immigrants by law, they are unable to work legally in the country and are often unable to afford basic healthcare services

"Early treatment at primary healthcare facilities and better education can prevent illnesses, if left untreated, would cost more to refugee families and Malaysia," he said.

He said there are some 150,000 refugees currently registered with UNHCR, with majority coming from Myanmar.

While refugees have access to public and private healthcare facilities in the country but factors including cost, fear of movement, and language limitations prohibit access to healthcare services.

"Partnerships with private healthcare providers like Qualitas is a good example of private sector involvement in reducing the burden of healthcare on the public healthcare system, while ensuring that marginalised communities get the healthcare they need.

"This programme creates affordable healthcare for an extremely vulnerable population, thus curbing any public health problems within this group," he added.

http://www.thesundaily.my/



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200 000 Afghan refugees return home

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News24 Wednesday 5th October, 2016

Islamabad - More than 200 000 Afghan refugees have been repatriated from Pakistan this year, nearly half of them in September alone, UNHCR said on Tuesday, the highest number since the US toppled the Taliban in 2002.

The tsunami of refugees returning to the war-torn country comes after Pakistan tightened its border controls in June and began cracking down on undocumented Afghans.

The vast majority - more than 185 000 - returned after July, with nearly 98 00 crossing the border in September alone, UNHCR spokesperson Qaisar Khan Afridi told AFP.

"From January until today, the number of refugees voluntarily repatriating to Afghanistan has crossed the figure of 200 000," Afridi said.

More and more appear to be going every day, with officials saying that the first four days of October saw up to 5 000 returnees daily.

An Amnesty International report on Tuesday said Pakistan hosted 1.6 million refugees, making it the third largest refugee hosting nation in the world.

But UNHCR said the figure, based on its own data, was already out of date and should be revised to 1.4 million after the movement since July.

The agency also estimates that a further one million undocumented refugees are in Pakistan.

Since 2009, Islamabad has repeatedly pushed back a deadline for them to return, but fears are growing that the latest cutoff date in March 2017 will be final.

Pakistani officials said the increase came after they vowed to tighten border controls, particularly at the porous Torkham Gate crossing.

However UNHCR cited an array of other reasons that could be helping drive the rush back into Afghanistan, including increasing anxiety and insecurity for refugees about life in Pakistan.

Other factors include the UNHCR decision to double its cash grant for voluntary returnees from $200 to $400 per individual in June, and a campaign by the Afghan government to lure its citizens back with the slogan "My country, my beautiful country".

In Afghanistan, however, torn apart by more than three decades of conflict, authorities warn the number of displaced people has outpaced the capacity of the government and aid agencies to cope.

Meanwhile the EU said Monday it has struck a tentative deal with Afghanistan to take back migrants ahead of a conference in Brussels aimed at securing international financial aid for the war-ravaged nation.

However, European Union officials have denied that aid pledges would depend on the Kabul government accepting the return of tens of thousands of Afghans from an overstretched Europe.

Source: News24

http://www.malaysiasun.com/



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Doctors Without Borders Washington Exhibit Explores Refugee Plight

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VOA Thursday 6th October, 2016

'Are those pets or food?' asks Sarah, the tour guide, as she begins to explain just how difficult the choices can be for people fleeing their homes.

The Forced from Home exhibit on the National Mall near the Washington Monument is a seemingly makeshift collection of tents, barricades, and photos of people fleeing their homes. But the display, sponsored by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), has a serious purpose: giving D.C. residents and tourists a small understanding of what it is like to be a refugee.

'Do you have any idea how many people in the world have been forced from home?' Sarah asks her group.

Some 65 million people are currently fleeing conflict and persecution, according to MSF.

Making hard choices

Many of the tour groups are students on organized visits from their schools. But the groups also include friends and supporters of MSF, D.C. residents, and tourists drawn in after visiting the Washington museums.

At the beginning of the journey, visitors assume the identity of a refugee or displaced person. They learn about the events that force people to leave their homes, including conflicts in Burundi, Mexico, Somalia, and, of course, Syria.

'In 2014, the U.N. stopped counting the number of civilians dead [in Syria],' Sarah tells her group. 'They were at 400,000.'

One D.C. resident leaves her stroller at registration and carries her 4-month-old baby through the hour-long tour.

'I thought it would be realistic this way,' she says.

As the 'refugees' move from station to station, they have to make choices: Do they pay for their journey with their remaining medicine, water, food or blankets?

Early in the exhibit, visitors are encouraged to sit in a rubber raft, designed to hold seven people. Sixteen people on the tour fit snugly in the raft, while Sarah explained that the boat would carry as many as 60 people across the Mediterranean Sea.

'Many people who take this journey die of asphyxiation,' she says.

The tour continues, showing markets, mosquito nets, and various types of tents. 'Refugee,' 'asylum seeker' or 'internally displaced' is written on the identity card given to each of the visitors. That identification determines what kind of accommodation each person would get.

Bearing witness

Every tour guide has his or her own story. Sarah first deployed to the Central African Republic before working in Gaza and in France, where she's from. To humanize some of the incomprehensibly large statistics and death tolls, Sarah told a story of some of the challenges she faced, including whether to separate a mother suffering from psychosis from her breastfeeding newborn.

'We need to raise awareness. We need to bear witness,' says Chris Tsarra of MSF. 'We need to bring back the voices from the field and share our experiences.'

By the end of the tour, only one of five items visitors took with them remains in their possession.

'Imagine, all you have to start your new life with is this, this one item,' Sarah says. For some, that's their passport. For others it's a blanket, or some cash.

The exhibit attempts to create a connection between refugees and Americans, who may see little reason to care about the global refugee crisis.

'They can just pretend that it's far away and not that big of a deal,' says Katherine Baer, a visitor on the tour. 'And especially if they don't see anybody responding to it: the politicians, the leaders. They can easily ignore it.'

The exhibit started in New York City, and will travel on to Boston and Philadelphia.

http://www.malaysiasun.com/



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