MALAYSIA : UN body open to sharing database

KUALA LUMPUR: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is open to having a database for those whose presence here it had sanctioned, that is accessible to the authorities who have been calling for one to be set up. 

In a statement, the Malaysian chapter of the UN body said it shared Kuala Lumpur’s concern about the use of fake UNHCR cards among asylum seekers. “We are convinced that the best way to manage the issue of criminality is to find a common registration system, where UNHCR and the government can identify the protection needs of refugees.

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 “We believe that a scheme allowing genuine refugees to be registered in Malaysia, including the opportunity to work lawfully, will have a remarkable and positive impact on both the quality of protection for refugees, and help the government address its legitimate concerns about criminality and security that pervade the lives of all undocumented migrants in Malaysia,” it said. 

The world refugee organisation, in a statement issued to the New Straits Times, said on its part, it had made a huge investment in tightening its procedures and ensuring the integrity of its documentation, including issuing cards with biometric security features. It added that its new cards, introduced two years ago, allowed law enforcement officers and health authorities to verify their authenticity through “well-established and agreed procedures”. 

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The UN body said in the statement that it had engaged with the relevant ministries and enforcement agencies, such as the police and Immigration Department, in finding ways to work closely “on common issues of security and humanitarian protection”. Adding that it was unhappy with NST’s frontpage headline “UNHCR Card Scandal”, which quoted senior government officials, a minister and deputy minister saying the issue of fake UNHCR cards was a major bane to the country, it said, “UNHCR finds the coverage of today’s articles on UNHCR’s processing grossly inaccurate and misleading. “UNHCR’s responsibility to protect refugees in Malaysia is derived from its authority under the United Nations.

 Unlike many other parts of the world, the government is not involved in the active processing and protection of refugees in this country,” it said. The UNHCR added that for more than 40 years, it had been actively working in Malaysia and had helped find protection solutions for hundreds of thousands of refugees displaced by war and conflict in this region. 

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This, they said, included the resettlement to a third country for some 100,000 refugees, as part of its solidarity and burden-sharing agreement with Malaysia. “The UNHCR has a robust processing system to determine those who are genuinely in need of international protection, as it was part of its protection responsibility, and only those found truly in need received their UNHCR identity documents,” it said.

Read More : http://www.nst.com.my

Thailand Must End Its Own Rohingya Atrocity

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This article is part of “Southeast Asia: Refugees in Crisis,” an ongoing series by The Diplomat for summer and fall 2015 featuring exclusive articles from scholars and practitioners tackling Southeast Asia’s ongoing refugee crisis. All articles in the series can be found here.

In May 2015, gruesome mass graves were unearthed in southern Thailand, revealing scores of bodies belonging to mostly Rohingya refugees who had been victimized by human traffickers. The discovery placed Thailand under a global spotlight exactly at the time when the country was seeking to be upgraded by the United States in terms of its handling of human trafficking.

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Seeking to distance itself from any guilt, the ruling regime charged at least 85 persons with complicity in the scandal, including Army General Manas Kongpaen. Thailand also agreed to offer humanitarian assistance to Rohingya refugees and convened a regional conference on Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants, which indirectly blamed Myanmar. Though Myanmar bears primary responsibility for the Rohingya crisis, Thailand’s own deplorable treatment of the Rohingya must immediately come to an end. The fact remains: the line between security officials and human traffickers in Thailand has become increasingly blurred. And Thailand has yet to be held accountable.

The Rohingya are a Muslim people of southwestern Myanmar, though neither Myanmar state authorities nor most Burmese accept their right to legally exist as citizens. The Burmese military practiced ethnic cleansing of Rohingya in 1978, 1992, and 2012-2013. Rohingya have also suffered from violent attacks by Buddhist Burmese nationalists and suffer discrimination throughout Myanmar.

Waves of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh. But by 2006, Bangladesh was overcrowded with refugees and many Rohingya decided to go to Malaysia instead. Doing so meant transiting through Thailand. Getting through Thai territory by land or water was difficult. First, human traffickers which brought most Rohingya through Thailand, were exploitative. Second, there were numerous health challenges. Third, Thailand’s military has been waging a heightened war against a Malay-Muslim insurgency in far southern Thailand, the very area Rohingya needed to transit to reach Malaysia. Given the insurgency, the mindset of many Thai security officials was hostile toward southern Thai Muslims. It was not difficult to extend that paranoia to the Rohingya, who Thai soldiers feared might join the revolt. Thus, Thai army and navy patrols routinely detained Rohingya refugees and either deported them back to Myanmar or — less frequently — helped their boats on to Malaysia.

Then Malaysia shifted its policy, refusing to register any new Rohingya. Those transiting through Thailand now found themselves stranded there, with others continuing to arrive. In 2008, Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej proposed sending all the Rohingya to a draconian immigration facility on a deserted Thai island. Though the idea was never implemented, the policies Thailand has used are not much better.

Thailand has never signed the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 protocol. As such, the country has no specific international legal responsibility to safeguard refugees or asylum seekers. Nevertheless, Thailand has signed other human rights agreements, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which arguably cover the rights of stateless Rohingya in Thailand. But a lack of enforcement has made these instruments ineffective. This has meant that Thailand has dealt with Rohingya as it sees fit.

Turning a blind eye to any international obligations to respect refugee rights, the Thai military initiated a new “pushing out” policy in which Rohingya, after surviving the harrowing ordeal of reaching Thailand across the sea, were now held on a remote island for two days. Then boatloads of them were towed out to international waters, their engine would be cut, and they would be set adrift with little food or water. The policy — which saw hundreds of Rohingya bodies later wash up on Asian beaches — was meant to deter potential Rohingya refugees from coming to Thailand. The strategy was tasked out to Gen. Manas Kongpaen of the Thai military’s Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC). Manas himself had gained infamy for participating in the massacre of Thai Muslims at Krue-Se mosque in 2004, though a court later acquitted him of any wrongdoing.

Under the Abhisit government, the “push-back” program was suspended, and instead a program of deportation or the indefinite detention of Rohingya was implemented. Whilst not as immediately condemnable as the “push-back” program, it was only facilitated by the Thai police joining forces with human traffickers. Deportation back to Myanmar has only led to imprisonment by Myanmar authorities, escape back into Thailand, or, most commonly, the handing over of Rohingya to human traffickers who smuggle Rohingya to Malaysia. Since most Rohingya could not pay the traffickers, they were forced into human slavery to work off the debt. Such a policy financially benefited local Myanmar security officials and smugglers alike while providing a clandestine solution to the returning Rohingya deportees.

In 2013, a Reuters investigation revealed that Thai police had admitted an official Thai policy of removing Rohingya detainees using a similar alliance between Thai security forces and human traffickers. As the policy was official, it had to have been sanctioned by Thailand’s senior-most security officials on down. It commenced following the 2012-2013 Myanmar state atrocities against Rohingya, which had exacerbated the latest Rohingya exodus abroad, including to Thailand. The strategy amounted to this: Thai authorities sold Rohingya detainees to traffickers who spirited them through a series of savage jungle camps (involving regular beatings and rapes) close to Malaysia, where relatives of the Rohingya had to pay ransom for them. Those who could not be ransomed were sold as slaves, or they died. A related report revealed that the Thai Navy had beaten Rohingya boatpeople and sold them to traffickers.

This relationship between the authorities and the traffickers is officially sanctioned. In light of this, the May 2015 discovery of mass graves finds not only alleged collaboration between Thai security officials and traffickers but instead growing evidence that in several cases the soldiers and traffickers are one and the same. Thus, it appears that the trafficking of Rohingya, for certain Thai security officials, represents not only a way to rid Thailand of detainees considered a security threat but also a means of making profits from refugee misery connected to human smuggling and slavery.

While initial responses by Thailand to the 2015 Rohingya crisis appeared to be positive, Thai security policymakers must answer some probing questions. First, do the mass graves not represent the logical result of Thai security forces’ intentional policy of trafficking Rohingya? Second, how could the Thai state allow Gen. Manas Kongpaen, earlier implicated in the Krue Se massacre, to locally lead ISOC’s Rohingya policy from 2008 until 2015? Third, as the current defense minister is the same as in 2009 — Prawit Wongsuwan — why was he not earlier successful in stopping human rights violations by Thai security officials against Rohingya? Fourth, if such trafficking was an intentional Thai policy, to what extent is Thailand guilty of crimes against humanity?

With global attention focused on Myanmar’s horrendous mistreatment of Rohingya, Thailand’s own human rights violations against them — though occasionally surfacing in public — have persisted as a secret sideshow. That sideshow has perpetuated a brutal system of human trafficking and prevented the Rohingya — currently Southeast Asia’s most brutalized ethnic minority — from reaching political asylum abroad. It is high time for Thai policymakers, with sufficient support from international actors, to either allow Rohingya at least the temporary right to asylum or ethically assist in moving Rohingya on to third countries.

Indonesia has better options for refugee issue – Veronica Koman

The international refugee crisis has finally reached a turning point. Led by Germany and followed by Austria, European countries have begun to open their borders. But how will the displacement of millions of people from Middle East countries affect Indonesia and our neighbour to the south – Australia?

Many refugees arrive in Indonesia as the nearest transit country on a journey they hope will bring them to safety in Australia, but are frequently abandoned here by people smugglers. Refugees who end up in Indonesia almost invariably apply for refugee status to the UN refugee agency, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Its asylum-seeker certificate and refugee card serve as their identity documents.

Besides registering with UNHCR, refugees are also obliged to register with Indonesian immigration authorities. Contrary to the picture painted in Friday’s The Jakarta Post editorial entitled “The refugee tsunami”, they are neither undocumented nor unregistered.

Those who are recognised by UNHCR as refugees then wait for resettlement in a third country, or voluntary repatriation once it is safe to return to their country of origin. It is a difficult wait, because refugees are not able to work or attend school here, unlike in Malaysia, where the government turns a blind eye to those seeking informal work.

Here, they mostly depend on relatives overseas to send them money. It is not unusual to find refugees sleeping on the streets, or detained in overcrowded immigration lockups. Jakarta’s Kalideres immigration detention centre, for example, was built to hold 88 people but last Thursday was packed with 160 detainees.

Despite our sympathy for displaced Rohingya, for example, we should not be too proud of ourselves – it is hardly enjoyable for refugees to live in Indonesia.

We should be careful about echoing Australian politicians’ pejorative use of terms such as “queue-jumpers” and “boat people”. People who risk their lives by taking to the seas from our shores are not jumping any real kind of “queue” for resettlement, as figures from UNHCR in Indonesia show.

For refugees registering here, the wait from registration to resettlement is sometimes as long as four to five years, and the proportion of registered refugees who succeed in being resettled from Indonesia is less than 2%. In 2014, there were 838 refugees resettled by the Indonesian office of UNHCR, while so far in 2015, there have been just 346.

European countries such as Greece that allow refugees to come ashore are doing nothing more than fulfilling an obligation under international law, namely the principle of non-refoulement. UNHCR has made it clear since 1997 that this provision of the 1951 Refugee Convention means that push-offs of boat arrivals or interdictions on the high seas, as practiced by Australia, are unlawful.

Nevertheless, this is what Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has shamefully encouraged European governments to adopt, despite their shared status as Refugee Convention signatories.

We should also keep the supposed “devastating impact” of refugee arrivals in perspective. Far from comprising an overwhelming tsunami, the latest data from the International Organization for Migration show that 350,000 refugees have been registered in Europe since January this year.

Even with more on the way, the total by December is unlikely to match 1% of the EU’s 503 million residents. The 13,170 refugees and asylum seekers currently present in Indonesia are a drop in our 250 million-strong ocean.

The economic impact of refugees also tends to be misunderstood. Taking Australia as an example, research released last week by the country’s Bureau of Statistics shows that far from “taking jobs”, refugees are the migrants most likely to secure their own income through establishing small businesses. This hardworking entrepreneurship is a net economic boost to the refugee’s host country, rather than a drain.

Abbott announced last week that Australia would take in an extra 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees. This is good news, although Australia could have done more, as urged by tens of thousands of Australians who joined a nationwide “Light the Dark” pro-refugee demonstration on Monday. But Abbott’s new intake also came with the decision to bomb Syria. This is a dangerously flawed approach since it is likely to result in more refugees fleeing Syria.

Abbott also said that Australia would prioritise taking in “persecuted minorities sheltering in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey”, which could result in prioritising Christian refugees. This also suggests a further dimming of hope for the 715 Iraqis and 90 Syrians living in limbo in Indonesia.

Under current Indonesian law, refugees are treated as illegal migrants, with the risk of lengthy detention in lockups like Kalideres. There exists, however, a long-neglected draft presidential regulation on the handling of refugees and asylum seekers. The draft leaves much room for improvement, but it would at least ensure people fleeing persecution are not criminalised when they reach our country.

I am sure President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is moved, as European leaders are, by the ongoing refugee tragedy. If he wishes to act, he can take the draft regulation off the shelf and ensure it is implemented swiftly, humanely, and in line with the spirit of the Refugee Convention. – Jakarta Post, September 11, 2015.

* Veronica Koman is a public interest lawyer at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta).

* 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

Multi-millionaires of world football take action on refugee crisis

GENEVA: The world of football continued to mobilise on Tuesday as wealthy European clubs proposed a series of money-raising projects to help the on-going refugee crisis.

Following AS Roma’s gesture to donate 575,000 euros ($643,000) as well as jerseys worn by stars Francesco Totti, Edin Dzeko and Miralem Pjanic to the newly-launched “Football Cares” auction site, the European Association of football clubs (ECA) announced a generous plan involving teams playing the Champions League and Europa League competitions.

Clubs have committed to giving one euro ($1.12) per ticket sold in their first continental matches this season, the ECA announced.

All 80 clubs have committed to the initiative with the money — estimated between €2m-€3m ($2.2m and $3.3m) going into a fund created by the ECA.

“This decision was decided unanimously following an FC Porto initiative,” explained the ECA’s recently re-elected German president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

“Football must take its share of responsibility. Clubs must make a contribution to help refugees, a grave and serious problem.

Roma president James Pallotta provided 250,000 euros ($280,000) from the 575,000 gifted by the Italian club, which threw in another 325,000 euros ($363,000) thanks to funding from shareholders and club assets.

The three Roma jerseys to be auctioned were worn during matches with 36-year-old captain Totti’s worn when he scored against CSKA Moscow in Russia last season, to beat his own record as the oldest scorer in a Champions League match.

Those of Dzeko and Pjanic were worn by the Bosnian duo during last week’s 2-1 Serie A win over Juventus in which they both scored.

The auction on www.charitystars.com will end on Friday, September 11 with the jerseys delivered to their purchasers in a numbered frame with a Certificate of Authentication issued by the club.

Roma said that all money raised would be donated to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the Red Cross and Non-Governmental Organisation’s (NGO’s) such as Save The Children and International Rescue Committee.

“Football has the power to reach millions of people and by rallying behind ‘Football Cares’ we can change things. It doesn’t matter whether donations are small,” the club said in a statement.

Solidarity movement

Elsewhere, Bayern Munich stars Javier Martinez and Mario Goetze appealed for internauts on Twitter to join the solidarity movement to help the masses of refugees from as far as Syria, Iraq and Somalia who have been arriving in Munich since last weekend.

“Today, I continue with #RefugiesWelcome. We are involved in this challenge” wrote Martinez who handed out clothes and footballs to refugees at the city train station last weekend, while other Bundesliga clubs, such as Borussia Dortmund, Schalke, Mainz and Borussia Moenchengladbach have made substantial donations.

The French Football Federation (FFF) have also come forward with 100,000 euros ($112,000) to a refugee association based in northern port city of Calais where thousands of desperate migrants have attempted to board Eurostar trains bound for the United Kingdom.

On Saturday, Real Madrid announced a donation of one million euros ($1.12m) to refugees that have arrived in Spain and provided shelter while Bayern Munich announced a similar proposal and also introduced other money-making projects.

Germany captain Bastian Schweinsteiger was one of many top figures denouncing the xenophobic attacks on the influx of migrants and launched an appeal for their protection.

Four-time European player of the year Lionel Messi said the dreadful conditions suffered by the migrants was “inconceivable” on his Facebook account and called for help for his charity organisations, which include one for Syrian refugee children who are waiting for help in Jordan.

-AFP

Myanmar: UN refugee agency 'seriously concerned' over returns from China

The United Nations refugee agency is “seriously concerned” over reports that China has sent back from its Yunan province groups of Myanmar nationals who sought safety there from violence in neighbouring Myanmar’s Kachin state.

“UNHCR is urging the Government of China to offer temporary protection to those who fled the fighting, to respect their humanitarian needs and not send them back to a situation where their safety and livelihood could be at risk,” a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Adrian Edwards, told a news briefing in Geneva.

“We stand ready to support China in assisting these people until the situation stabilizes in their home areas,” he added.

The UN estimates that some 75,000 civilians have been displaced within Kachin and Myanmar’s northern Shan states since fighting broke out between Government troops and rebels last year, with more people continuing to flee insecure areas every day.

Mr. Edwards said that some 5,000 ethnic Kachins – who had fled fighting between Government troops and rebels that broke out in Kachin state in June last year – have been returned from China since mid-August, and were living in makeshift camps in border areas of the Myanmar state.

The spokesperson noted that more than 3,400 returnees are now staying in camps for internally displaced people in Kachin state because their homes were destroyed in the fighting and they are afraid to return to their villages. “They desperately need food, medicine, shelter and other relief items,” he added.

Despite repeated requests to the Chinese authorities, the refugee agency has not been able to reach or assist Kachin groups living along the Chinese side of the border, but recently a UNHCR team travelled to the town Lwe Je on the Myanmar side to provide aid and assess the needs of the returnees.

Some of those interviewed said that local authorities in China pulled down their shelters, and others reported that plainclothes policemen put them on a truck, loaded their belongings on another truck, and drove them to a border crossing point.

Staff of a local non-governmental organization saw what happened and arranged for trucks to take the returnees to the nearest camps in Myanmar, according to Mr. Edwards, who also noted that local groups say they expect more people to be sent back from China.

UNHCR has distributed relief items to the 1,200 returnees in the four camps for internally displaced persons in Lwe Je, including tarpaulins, blankets, mosquito nets, kitchen sets and basic toiletries. On Thursday, the agency’s team completed a second visit to the town to deliver aid and to assess the returnees’ needs in a more comprehensive way.

China repatriates displaced Myanmar nationals

Myanmar family

China is being urged to protect thousands of refugees from Myanmar who have fled fighting between government troops and rebels in the volatile Kachin state.

The appeal comes from the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) which says that up to 5,000 people, the majority of them children, have been returned since mid-August and are living in makeshift camps.

Adrian Edwards from UNHCR says those forced back were afraid to return to their villages and were in desperate need of food, medicines, shelter and other relief supplies.

 "Some of them say that the local authorities took down their shelters in China. Others report that plainclothes policemen put them on trucks, loading their belongings on to other trucks, and driving them to the borders. Local groups and partners say they expect more people to be sent back from China. UNHCR is urging the government of China to offer temporary protection to those who fled the fighting, to respect their humanitarian needs and not send them back to a situation where their safety and livelihood could be at risk. We’re ready to support China in assisting these people until the situation stabilizes in their home areas." (Duration 34")

UNHCR says despite repeated requests to the Chinese authorities, it has not been able to reach or assist the groups of refugees from Myanmar living along the Chinese side of the border.

Rights Group Slams China for Forcibly Returning Burma Refugees

Human Rights Watch has sent a letter to China accusing it of violating international law by forcing thousands of Burmese to return to their conflict-torn homeland.

The group says Beijing recently returned at least 4,000 ethnic Kachins who had fled to China's Yunnan province. It said they were sent home in late August after the government “summarily declared” they were not refugees.

Tens of thousands of people have fled fighting in northern Burma since June 2011, when a 17-year cease-fire between the military and the Kachin Independence Army collapsed.

China has denied forcibly returning the Kachins, saying they voluntarily crossed the border when the fighting ended. But Human Rights Watch says the violence continues in Kachin state and that thousands more are being displaced.

The group's letter to the Chinese foreign ministry said the up to 10,000 Kachin refugees who have been allowed to enter China have not been provided humanitarian assistance and have been denied access to U.N. human rights officials.

Bill Frelick, Refugee Program Director at Human Rights Watch, said China is creating “its own refugee status determination process” rather than honoring international law on refugees.

Last week, the U.S. State Department also called on China to give temporary protection for Kachin refugees in Yunnan, saying they should only return home by their own choice when it is safe to do so.

Burma's government has reached cease-fire deals with several ethnic minority rebel groups in recent months. But negotiations with the Kachin have so far been unsuccessful.

Source : VOA

China Forces Ethnic Kachin Refugees Back to a Conflict Zone in Myanmar’s North

KATMANDU, Nepal — The authorities in southwestern China are forcibly evicting thousands of encamped ethnic Kachin refugees who fled a renewed civil war in neighboring Myanmar, pushing them back into the conflict zone in Kachin State in northern Myanmar, according to foreign human rights researchers, political analysts and two people in Kachin State.

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The New York Times

Refugees are returning to a conflict zone in Kachin State.

The forced repatriation appears to be happening in large waves this week. The refugees fled to China after a 17-year cease-fire agreement between the Kachin Independence Army and Myanmar’s government broke down in June 2011. The civil war with the Kachin is one of many occurring in Myanmar, formerly Burma, and the renewal of the Kachin conflict has cast doubts on the sincerity or ability of President Thein Sein to carry out deep political reforms.

A researcher for Human Rights Watch said the repatriations appeared to have begun en masse on Tuesday. He estimated that 1,000 refugees had returned to Kachin State and that an additional 4,000 were projected to return by the end of the week.

In June, Human Rights Watch reported that 7,000 to 10,000 Kachin refugees were in China and subjected to squalid conditions and harsh treatment by officials. It also said there had been some instances of forced repatriation by Chinese officials, though apparently not as systematic or widespread as now.

“All the refugees in China now are being pushed back,” said a resident of Laiza, the capital of the rebel-held part of Kachin State. “Many of them are back already.” On Wednesday, he added, Chinese border guards expelled a group of refugees from an area called Nong Tau and destroyed refugee huts even before the refugees had left the site.

Ryan Roco, a human rights researcher who has documented the plight of the war’s displaced, said he had learned that at least 4,200 Kachin were being forced out of six camps in Yunnan Province, China, and back into Myanmar. He said the process, begun last week, appeared to have intensified since Tuesday. A further 700 were living with family or friends in Yunnan after being forced from the camps, he said.

Those who have returned to Kachin State are living on both sides of the conflict zone. Part of Kachin State is controlled by the Kachin Independence Army, though the rebel group has lost significant territory since the civil war restarted.

“The actions of the Chinese against vulnerable Kachin demonstrate a wanton disregard for human dignity and international humanitarian law,” Mr. Roco said.

Officials in Yunnan and Beijing had been tolerating the presence of the Kachin refugees for more than a year, although Yunnan officials had threatened to evict them.

It is not clear why the refugees are being expelled now. An employee at the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the ministry had no immediate comment after it was sent a list of questions on Thursday. Calls to the Yunnan propaganda office went unanswered, as did calls to the propaganda office of Dehong Autonomous Prefecture, the location of the camps.

The Kachin are Christians, and Chinese religious organizations and some other aid groups have been allowed by local Chinese officials to help refugees and internally displaced Kachin.

China has not taken an official position on the Kachin conflict. Kachin State is rich in jade, timber, mineral wealth and water resources, all coveted by the Chinese. Several large Chinese dam projects are in the region, including the Myitsone Dam, which aroused local protests.

China is also a major patron of the Burmese government, though many Myanmar citizens are wary of or hostile toward growing Chinese influence. 

On Monday, The Irrawaddy, a newspaper based in Thailand that reports on Myanmar, said Chinese officials had pressed the Kachin Independence Organization, the civilian counterpart to the Kachin Independence Army, to accept 4,000 refugees back in Kachin State.

Patrick Zuo contributed research from Beijing.