Syrian refugees and our hypocrisy

Even as we were being so hospitable to the Bosnians, we were disdaining the persecuted Rohingya, thousands of whom continue to live in deplorable conditions in our backyard, recalls Abdar Rahman Koya.

Not really long ago, when I was a little kid, I used to watch the Indian grass cutter at work in our lawn.

It seemed easy, I thought, and I decided it must be the perfect well-paying job, because every house with a patch of grass would need the service.

Of course, I soon realised that grass cutting is not the most lucrative career in the world.

Nowadays, having learnt about the cost of living the hard way, I sometimes think of that grass cutter. How much did he sacrifice to send his daughter to private college after she was denied a place in the public university?

And such thoughts translate into a hatred for the system, a system which allows so-called positive discrimination and race-based affirmative action.

Similarly, whenever I see someone talk about equality and humanity in some distant place, invoking verses of the Qur’an, the word hypocrisy looms large in my mind.

A case in point is Malaysia’s recent announcement that it would accept 3,000 refugees from war-torn Syria.

That number, of course, is just about 0.4 per cent of the 800,000 Syrian refugees accepted by Germany.

Suddenly there was a litany of praises for Malaysia’s gesture, and suddenly we hear Islamic exhortations about helping the migrants.

You see, there is something similar about the move to help Syrian refugees and some Muslims’ obsession with repeatedly going to Mecca, spending so much money on airfare and accommodation. And that is this: both go to great lengths, literally, to do “good”.

Instead of pointing out the devils in our midst, we travel thousands of miles to ritually stone the symbolic devil on a barren desert.

Instead of spending money to help families who could not afford a good education for their children, we set aside our money every year going on repetitive holidays in the name of religion.

So is the case in the announcement by Najib Razak in New York, on taking in Syrian refugees.

Instead of quietly and unostentatiously helping our dark-skinned brown neighbours, tens of thousands of whom were knocking on our shores with smelly clothes and empty stomachs (before we were shamed into reluctantly rescuing them from the seas), our prime minister grandly announced to the world, from a pulpit in New York, that we would accept a handful of refugees from Syria, promising them jobs, education and housing, things many in our own country, let alone neighbouring ones, would die for.

We are also unclear on the concept.

Instead of doing a Merkel and reaching out to people who desperately cry for help, we did a Mr Boffo and brought the Unclear on the Concept comic series to life, by treating refugees like a meat shop, sifting through them for professionals and semi-skilled, effectively telling those human beings without proper education or skills to stay in Isis-land (or Assad-land, depending on whom we consider the villain).

In short, we have no clue as to what we are doing, because we are always guided by our biases – religious, racial, skin colour even – not by a moral compass to help humanity.

Indeed, the latest offer by Malaysia to show its international responsibility only shows our hypocrisy about the refugee issue and cluelessness about the concept of humanity.

The elephant in the room is too large to ignore, and it comes in the form of this question: why we jumped to help thousands of Syrians when all this while we were practically showing the middle finger to calls to ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention, the pledge to recognise people who flee war and persecution as refugees who must be helped.

Muslim nation

Another point is our government’s assumption that the Syrian refugees would want to resettle in Malaysia. The reality is probably rather different.

The Syrians, despite sharing religious affinities with many Malaysians, may find their lifestyle culturally and environmentally closer to Europe, no matter how Arab some of us pretend to be.

The Syrians are not seeking a Muslim government to shelter them. Heck, a Muslim nation is probably the last place they want to settle in, considering how they have seen their lands being turned into hell by people who use God’s name to do whatever they please. On the contrary, like any human being, they just need to get on with their lives.

Consider, for example, the case with the Bosnian refugees some years back. We went to great lengths to help them. We brought hundreds of them here, placed many of them at the International Islamic University despite them speaking pidgin English and even built an entire village to house them.

Fast forward a decade, you find only a handful of Bosnians still here – most have moved to the West.

Meanwhile, even as we were being so hospitable to the Bosnians, we were disdaining the persecuted Rohingya, thousands of whom continue to live in deplorable conditions in our backyard.

Many of these Rohingyas were bright young children forced to beg on the streets and resort to crime because we refused to recognise the piece of paper they carried stating that they are refugees.

Our hospitality to Bosnians also came at a time when probably hundreds of migrant workers were languishing in squalid conditions at our immigration camps. Something exposed by the late Irene Fernandez, backed by documented evidence, only to find herself later battling for her own freedom.

It is not strange that a government which does not recognise refugees of their own kind, refugees who are culturally more adept to live in this country, are now going all out offering a lifeline to 3,000 refugees from a different land, who probably do not even wish to resettle here.

Because here is a government that has been vocal about the plight of the Palestinians, when what the latter are suffering is echoed by our own hotchpotch concept of licensed apartheid.

Such is our hypocrisy.

We travel half the world to showcase our humanity.

Every year, in some case twice and thrice a year, we splurge a couple of years’ worth of a labourer’s salary to join a sea of humanity circumambulating the House of God.

And then, we talk about justice and punch the Jalan Ampang air on a hot Friday afternoon.

And while all this is going on, some dark-skinned grass cutter’s daughter is hard at work studying for her school exam, not knowing that one day soon, she too will be refused a place at one of our tax payer-funded public universities.

Source: themalaysianinsider.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

Human Rights: EU criticized for lifting Myanmar sanctions

As the European Union permanently lifts sanctions against Myanmar, rights campaigners warn that the country is on 'the front edge of a major disaster.'

The EU's decision to eliminate most of the remaining sanctions on Myanmar ignores strong evidence of ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims by the government, says Human Rights Watch.
The New York-based campaign group released a report alleging the involvement of state security forces during last year's violence in Arakan state.
The 153-page document was issued hours ahead of a meeting of the EU's Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday.
After decades of tensions between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar, fighting broke out last June and again in October. Over 180 people were killed and more than 125,000 people were displaced.
Other ethnic conflicts have also intensified since Myanmar - also known as Burma - opened up following decades of military rule in 2011.
Lost leverage?

The UNHCR has urged Myanmar's neighbors to let in refugees

Speaking to DW in neighboring Thailand, the report's author Matthew Smith said: "I think the economic forces within the EU have taken over these debates and this is largely why we are seeing the sanctions lifted. There is too much interest in capitalizing - in the strict sense - on Myanmar's political opening and unfortunately human rights are being cast aside."
Smith said Brussels had lost some of its leverage to pressure Myanmar leaders by rolling back non-military sanctions. He called on EU leaders to figure out a "clear-eyed approach" to address "serious human rights problems."
HRW's report included around 200 individual and group interviews with Muslims and Buddhists on both sides of the ongoing ethnic tensions. Witnesses described how villages were burned to the ground, civilians were hacked to death and bodies were dumped into mass graves.
"Contrary to the government's assertion that what we are seeing is purely at a communal level, what we have found has been a high level of involvement of state security forces," Smith said.
Nowhere to go
The Burmese government considers ethnic Rohingya illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. But thousands of these people claim their roots in the country dating back several generations. The Rohingya were excluded from a 1982 law which guaranteed citizenship for many other ethnic groups. HRW has demanded the law be amended.
Refugee camps have been set up for those internally displaced by the bloodshed in Arakan state while thousands have attempted to flee to neighboring countries. Bangladesh has refused to host new refugees despite pledges of international assistance. Travel within Myanmar is restricted for most Rohingya.
The only remaining choice is to escape by sea. But likewise, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka have turned arriving boats away from their shores and hundreds have died at sea.

The EU has lifted sanctions in recognition of Myanmar's ongoing democratic reforms

"Now the numbers of Rohingya who are fleeing (in boats) include women and children. Typically it was males that would take the risky journey by sea and the numbers are increasing significantly," Smith added.
"There is an urgent need that the international community address this and that all these governments be pressured to at least offer temporary shelter to the Rohingya and to provide UN agencies, including the UNHCR, access to these populations when they arrive."
Coming crisis
Aid agencies warn that the upcoming monsoon season is likely to spell disaster for those living in makeshift camps within Myanmar. The region is regularly hit by Cyclones and subject to severe flooding.
Maung Kyaw Nu, President of the Burma Rohingya Association Thailand has demanded that refugees be moved uphill. "Mostly, these people are given shelter the low lands - paddy land areas. Most people live in straw huts. So when the monsoon starts, there will be floods and I am frightened (whether) people are going to (stay) alive or not. The situation is already very dire for those in camps."
Kyaw Nu, whose organization has more than 3,500 members, thinks the EU is ignoring the Rohingya "genocide" by permanently lifting economic and trade sanctions on Myanmar.

Human rights should not be cast aside for economic benefits, say rights activists

"Their interest is business, geopolitical and strategic. Their interests are (put) above human rights. Most of the world's leaders are doing business with Myanmar. So I ask them to save humanity first before economic interests, that is, if humanity in the world still exists."
In a statement released on Monday, the EU called for additional measures to deal with "inter-communal violence" and called on the Myanmar government to address the status of the Rohingya.
The council also highlighted the need for "unhindered and full access for humanitarian and development aid workers to all communities affected by conflict and sectarian violence."

Giving Refugee Youth a Second Chance at Life

Education, Computers, Personal Development

About 39, 462 Burmese refugees call Malaysia ‘home’ as of December, 2011. However, due to their refugee status many can’t access proper education and are forced to accept jobs with no securities and no rights.

UNHCR and SOLS 24/7 are offering Burmese refugees an opportunity to receive training that could change their lives:

A FREE and comprehensive training program, educating Burmese youth in academics and life skills.

Do you know Burmese organizations or know/ seen people who could benefit from this initiative? One small gesture of sharing could change their life!

We are seeking people like you to reach out to the ‘invisible’ people in our society. Make a pledge and share this information… if only with one person!

Click here for the PDF of SOLS 24/7′s ‘My Training Centre’ Brochure: UNHCR SOLS ‘My Training Centre’ Brochure

For more details, contact Project Manager, Jessy Francis: +6019- 6898442

Burma: Unraveling the paradox

By Lynn Yoshikawa, Refugees International

 

Traveling in Burma last month, it wasn’t hard to see that things really are changing in this beautiful but troubled country. Posters of Aung San Suu Kyi filled market stalls and hung proudly in the offices of local civil society groups – a remarkable change from the past, when possessing just one was a cause for arrest. Activists of all backgrounds spoke openly about politics, even in public spaces, without the usual hushed tones and glances over the shoulder.

Sadly, however, human rights abuses and corruption also continue in this “new Burma”. In the ethnic areas we visited – Kachin in the north, and Karen and Mon in the east – the optimism we heard in Yangon was muted. In Kachin, we visited church compounds where women and children sheltered in crowded assembly halls after military attacks destroyed their homes. In the east, we met a Baptist pastor running aid programs for displaced communities, who had been ordered by authorities to give up part of the church’s land to a private company.

These contradictions reflect the continuing tension between those who are leading Burma’s reforms, like President Thein Sein, and hardliners who see rapid change as a threat to national security. This struggle within the country’s ruling class will take time to resolve, and it will take decades before high-level reforms reach the people. But that doesn’t mean the U.S. can sit back and wait for change to be realized; quite the opposite is true.

Unlike in Burma’s previous regime, progressive voices are now emerging from within the government, ranging from parliamentarians to ministers to regional leaders. More importantly, there is a nascent, but growing, civil society in Burma – from groups providing humanitarian assistance in conflict areas, to human rights advocates pressing the government on military abuses and environmental threats.

To capitalize on this opening, and lend support to these progressive voices, the U.S. must  engage the Burmese government at all levels. High-level diplomacy will be important, but meeting Burma’s humanitarian needs will also be vital. In 50 years of isolation, Burma has been wracked by conflict, hit by devastating natural disasters, and plagued by underdevelopment. USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance must, therefore, expand its humanitarian aid program to meet the needs of Burma’s half a million internally-displaced people and 800,000 stateless.

For the Burmese government to succeed with any reforms, it will also need significant technical assistance from the international community. The U.S. must loosen aid restrictions on Burma, which prohibit any aid to the government, to engage reform-minded leaders and civil servants – particularly teachers and health workers. Decades of “brain drain,” coupled with an archaic and inadequate education system, has left local capacity extremely low.

All of this is not to say that longstanding U.S. sanctions on Burma should be completely lifted. Indeed, the country’s continuing rights violations and unresolved civil conflicts show that reform will not happen overnight, and the U.S. should not withdraw pressure prematurely. But the steps outlined above show that there are other ways to meet the immediate needs of Burma’s people, and make reform real at last.

Lynn Yoshikawa is an advocate with Refugees International, a Washington DC-based organization that advocates to end refugee crises and receives no government or UN funding. Refugees International’s report, Burma: An Opportunity to Expand Humanitarian Space, was released today.

Malaysia: Refugees arrested, abused and denied right to work

The Malaysian government should give refugees in the country the right to work, Amnesty International said today as it revealed a litany of abuses suffered by refugees in Malaysia, the vast majority of whom are from Burma.

Released ahead of World Refugee Day on 20 June, the report ‘Abused and Abandoned: Refugees Denied Rights in Malaysia’ documents the plight of refugees and asylum-seekers who have reached Malaysia, where they are refused legal recognition, protection, or the right to work.

“Refugees should be able to live with dignity while they are in Malaysia. The government should move immediately to issue refugees official ID cards and grant them the right to work,” said Chris Nash, Head of Refugee and Migrant Rights at Amnesty International.

Refugees and asylum-seekers in Malaysia are subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention in appalling conditions, caning, extortion, human trafficking and deportation back to the persecution that they fled.

In February, Malaysian Home Secretary Hishamuddin Hussein proposed the introduction of government ID cards for UN-recognised refugees, and stated that refugees should be able to take on ‘odd jobs’ but not have the full right to work. However, no concrete steps have been taken to introduce the ID cards since then.

Government ID cards would give refugees and asylum-seekers in Malaysia some immediate protection from arbitrary detention, harassment and extortion by police and the People’s Volunteer Corps (RELA), who routinely refuse to recognise cards issued by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The Malaysian volunteer police force RELA continues to operate in a climate of impunity, despite recent government assurances that the organisation would cease to be involved in immigration enforcement.

The US Department of State 2010 ‘Trafficking in Persons’ report confirmed this week that RELA arbitrarily detains refugees and asylum-seekers, that “refugees were particularly vulnerable to trafficking”, and that despite government efforts, there was limited progress in convicting traffickers.

Amnesty International acknowledges that in the last year Malaysian officials have stopped handing refugees and asylum seekers to human traffickers operating on the Thai-Malaysian border.

“There is a long way to go for Malaysia on refugee rights, but government-issued ID cards are a start. This is the right time for Malaysia to take this very simple, but concrete and positive step that will make a huge difference to the lives of tens of thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers in the country,” said Chris Nash.

Amnesty International is urging the government to continue to improve refugee policies, including by building on its cooperation with the UNHCR instructing law enforcement agencies to stop detaining UNHCR card-holders.

It also urges other countries to increase their resettlement of refugees currently in Malaysia.

Resettlement provides a small number of refugees with the opportunity to rebuild their lives in countries such as Australia, Canada, the United States and in Europe. However, there has been a notable lack of resettlement of the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority from Burma.

Background

Malaysia has not ratified the Refugee Convention, and refugees and asylum seekers are treated as irregular or undocumented workers under Malaysian law. UNHCR is the only authority in the country that recognises refugees and offers them any assistance.

There are 84,200 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR in Malaysia, although the numbers of unregistered people in similar circumstances are estimated to be over twice that.

Over 90% of registered refugees and asylum-seekers in Malaysia are from Burma.

Rohingya waiter Solim Ullah, "I live in fear every day"

COX’S BAZAR, Born and raised in Bangladesh, 17-year-old Solim Ullah* is a documented Rohingya refugee. He has a job as a waiter at a restaurant in Cox’s Bazar, southern Bangladesh’s most popular beach resort, but following a recent crackdown fears arrest.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), there are an estimated 200,000 Rohingya - an ethnic and linguistic minority who fled neighbouring Myanmar en masse decades ago - in Bangladesh. Of these only 28,000 are documented, including 11,000 at the official Kutupalong refugee camp outside Cox’s Bazaar, and another 17,000 further south at Nayapara camp.

Solim told IRIN about his life - his hopes and fears:

“My family has lived in the Kutupalong refugee camp since 1991. For me it is nothing more than a prison.

“Although we receive assistance, there is no life for me there. We are barred from leaving the camp, barred from working, barred from doing anything that would make any person happy.

“It’s been four months since I left the camp and the authorities still don’t even know I am gone.

“There are a few other guys from the camp here working as well, but I don’t associate with them. I don’t dare, in case they get caught as well.

“I know what I’m doing is illegal. In fact it’s dangerous, but what choice do I have? No one here knows that I am Rohingya. If they did, I would be fired and be arrested. Worse still, I would probably be beaten.

“But that is the reality of being a Rohingya in Bangladesh, and I live in fear every day of being discovered.

“My family is from northern Rakhine State in Myanmar, where my father worked as a farmer. Life was OK, but we faced lots of problems there.

“Over time, things began to worsen and eventually our land was confiscated. At one point, the authorities demanded every Muslim household hand over one boy for work. And no, the idea of refusing wasn’t an option.

“Ultimately, we fled to Bangladesh where I was born and have lived ever since.

“But we are hardly welcome here either. In fact, many Bangladeshis look down upon us. They discriminate against us. They say we don’t belong here and should return to our country - a country I’ve never even been to. Some see us as less than human and take advantage of us. And if we do work, we are always paid less.

“I would like to do something with my life, but there are limited educational opportunities in the camp, and I want more.

“Isn’t that normal? To want to make the most of your life? To do what you want freely? Every day on the beach I see people doing just that. Doing what they want, being free. Surely I should have the same right. I am human after all.”

THE RECENT EARTHQUAKE

THE U.S. COMMITTEE FOR REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS URGES CONGRESS AND THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO IMMEDIATELY GRANT TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS TO HAITIANS DUE TO THE RECENT EARTHQUAKE

In light of the tragic earthquake in Haiti, The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) urges the Obama Administration and Congress to grant Haitians who are currently in the United States, including children not accompanied by their parents, Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Haitians cannot return safely to their country of origin due to the extensive damaged caused by the January 12th earthquake.

“Our hearts go out to the Haitian people as they struggle with the devastation brought by this earthquake.  I applaud President Obama’s immediate response directing military and civilian assistance to help people who have survived this tragedy.  USCRI urges the President to extend this generosity to Haitians in the U.S. who are anxiously awaiting information about family left behind and cannot return due to the destruction,” said Lavinia Limon, President and CEO of USCRI.

TPS is a temporary immigration status, ranging from 6 to 18 months, which allows the foreign national to stay and work in the United States.  It does not lead to permanent residency. TPS may be granted in situations where there are extraordinary and temporary conditions in the home country that prevent nationals from returning safely.  Earthquakes in other countries resulted in TPS grants in the past.

Already, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary John Morton have halted the removals of Haitians.  This is a good first step and now TPS should be granted.

The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants is a Washington, DC area based nonprofit organization, dedicated to addressing the needs and rights of persons in forced or voluntary migration worldwide by advancing fair and humane public policy, facilitating and providing direct professional services, and promoting the full participation of refugees and immigrants in community life.

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, 2231 Crystal Drive Suite 350, Arlington, VA 22202-3711, (703) 310-1130, www.Refugees.org

Bangladesh to send home thousands of Burmese refugees

Burma has agreed to repatriate 9,000 Rohingya Muslims from Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi government has said.

Foreign Secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes made the announcement in Dhaka after meeting his Burmese counterpart, who is on a two-day official visit.

The bilateral is also expected to cover trade deals and maritime boundaries.

Human rights groups say Rohingya Muslims have fled religious persecution in Burma and do not want to return to their home country.

Many refugees lack adequate food and sanitation

Many are said to have nowhere to live and suffer "dire conditions".

Burma has assured Bangladesh it will begin the process of repatriation "as soon as possible", Mr Quayes said, after meeting Maung Myint, Burma's foreign minister.

He said Bangladesh had handed over a list of 28,000 Rohingyas to Burma, which had accepted that 9,000 people on the list were its citizens.

Dhaka says there are nearly 30,000 Rohingyas in two official camps in south-eastern Bangladesh, and another 300,000 living illegally elsewhere.

Correspondents say Tuesday's announcement offers a partial solution to a problem that dates back 30 years.

Rohingyas began fleeing Burma in the late 1970s, although the biggest influx was in 1992 when an estimated 250,000 fled to Bangladesh.

Human rights groups say the Burmese junta discriminates against the Rohingyas' Islamic faith, depriving them of free movement, education and employment.

Earlier this year Rohingya refugees tried to escape Burma to other Asian countries, including Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Reuters: U.N. assembly condemns Myanmar rights record

Filed under: International

United Nations – The U.N. General Assembly condemned wide-ranging human rights violations in Myanmar in a resolution adopted early on Thursday.

The resolution on the country formerly known as Burma, voted through by 86-23 with 39 abstentions, “strongly condemns the ongoing systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Myanmar.”

It also called on Myanmar’s military rulers to immediately release opposition leader and Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, as well as freeing more than 2,000 other prisoners of conscience.

In November, Myanmar’s U.N. envoy, Than Swe, rejected the non-binding resolution, then in draft form, calling it “glaringly deficient” and little more than “another means to maintain pressure on Myanmar in tandem with sanctions.”

Swe could not be reached for comment on Thursday’s vote.

Assembly condemnations of the human rights situation in North Korea, Myanmar and Iran have become an annual ritual in recent years.

This year’s vote came after U.N. special rights investigator on Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana told the General Assembly in October that “the situation of human rights in Myanmar remains alarming.”

Envoys from nations that rights groups have also accused of having poor human rights records — including China, Russia, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Egypt and Zimbabwe — say they generally vote against such resolutions because they oppose singling out specific countries.

M’sia a ‘migrants abuser’

Christine Chan

from : malaysiakini

Knowingly or unknowingly government policies worldwide have exposed migrants to human rights abuses, according to Human Rights Watch’s(HRW) round-up report for this year.

The report that includes China, Egypt, France Greece, Italy, Kuwait, Malaysia, Thailand, Russia and United States exposes rampant labour exploitation, inadequate access to health care, prolonged detentions in poor and overcrowded conditions.

On Malaysia, the report says corruption and extortion during the recruitment process contributes to deception of migrants over job promises or the validity of their travel documents.

And migrants who do not have work permits including refugees, asylum seekers, and victims of deportation may be subject to arrest, prosecution and deportation under Malaysia’s harsh immigration law.

Punishment also includes imprisonment, caning, heavy fines, and prolonged detention in overcrowded and unhygienic immigration detention centre. Therefore, for fear of arrest and deportation, these migrants may endure exploitative work conditions.

Besides that, according to the report, our local governments have also condoned vigilante style monitoring of migrants by civilians group known as People’s Voluntary Corp (RELA).

RELA, a half- million strong untrained paramilitary force whose members, in conjunction with immigration and police officers, routinely rounds up suspected undocumented migrants.

Further, it reveals that abuses committed during raids include physical assault, threats, humiliating treatment, forced entry into living quarters, extortion, theft and destruction of identity or residency papers.

‘We need to protect them’

Senior researcher in HRW’s Women’s Rights Division, Nisha Varia said that governments seem to think that when people migrate, they leave their rights at home and instead of protecting these people who are already at risk of abuse, many governments further marginalize and punish them.

“Migrants form the backbone of many economies, performing the labour and services that people in their host countries depend on but will not do it themselves”

“Instead of getting respect, freedom and wages they are owed, they are treated as security threats, and in general, as undesirables to be pushed out of sight,” she said.

HRW recommends the Malaysian government to take the following steps:

Expedite judicial process and end any form of corporal punishment for immigration offences;

Ensure asylum seekers, refugees, trafficked persons, and abused workers are not subject to penalties imposed under the Immigration Act 1959/63;

Establish a mechanism for migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers to report allegations of abuse anonymously. Those filing charges should be guaranteed legal counsel, permission to work, and safety from detention or deportation until judicial processes are complete; and,

Abolish RELA, and until such time, restructure it as a volunteer agency with no role in apprehension of irregular migrants.

An open Letter !

Posted on 22 May 2009 by Administrator

Dear Dato’ Wong Chun Wai,

I have to place on record my deep disappointment at your recent article in The Sunday Star of 17 May 2009, under the title “A Disease Not To Be Sneezed At“. You have in essence attributed the incidence and resurgence of certain diseases in our country to the presence of migrant workers and illegal immigrants. However the only factual basis for the views you expressed were 2 reports, one from 2000 and another from 2004. Indeed the 2004 report to which you referred merely documented the incidence of certain diseases amongst 1 million foreign workers examined nationwide. No comparison was made with any contemporaneous or subsequent study of the incidence of such diseases amongst Malaysians to establish any causal link. In any event, neither of these reports constitutes up-to-date evidence to support your opinion. The rest of the references were anecdotal in nature and not substantiated.

Even when writing about the very recent outbreak of leptospirosis at the Juru Detention Camp, you chose to ignore the much more fundamental point, which is that the Government is incarcerating foreign nationals in places and under conditions which are totally unhygienic. At the very least, their water supply is contaminated. Instead, you chose to conclude from this reference to the incidence of leptospirosis that “it is worrying that Malaysia is facing the return of diseases eliminated decades ago”. When did we eliminate leptospirosis? And how did this particular outbreak occur? Are you saying the foreign nationals brought leptospirosis into Malaysia? If so, how did they do it, given that it arises from consuming water contaminated by animal urine? Did they bring in their own water? Did they smuggle their own animals across our borders? Your conclusion is simply preposterous and misplaced in this regard.

Although your article started with an account of your experience being delayed by medical checks when visiting Shenzen, where ironically YOU may have been the foreign national suspected of bringing disease into China, and you made some references to borderless international travel, the better part of your article was devoted essentially to blaming migrant workers and illegal immigrants for much of the resurgent health problems in Malaysia. As you wrote: “It would not be wrong to say that Malaysia is facing the emergence and re-emergence of diseases because of these foreigners.” The blame is clear: “because of these foreigners”. The contempt captured in the words “these foreigners” is palpable. No attempt was made to include in the reference to “these foreigners” the well-heeled travellers who could be bringing influenza A (H1N1) to Malaysia. It instantly reminded me of the favoured practice of our glorious men and women in blue of blaming foreign nationals for the increase in the incidence of crime in Malaysia. By attempting to pinpoint someone else as being the cause of our problems, we offer a false panacea. We are not to blame. We are not responsible. It is not because of us, but because of them, “these foreigners”. Remove them, and the problem is also removed.

Such a simplistic analysis does a great disservice to the proper understanding of the public health and safety concerns that face us as a nation. When we mis-diagnose the problem, we mis-prescribe the solution. While I do not deny that these public health and safety concerns exist, their causes are myriad and manifold. By choosing to demonise a particular segment of our society as being the root cause of these problems, we encourage xenophobia, the unfounded and irrational fear of foreigners amongst us. We promote hate and division. We justify injustice, ill-treatment and the violation of their basic human rights. Their crime: to belong to an economic and social underclass.

True, we already have ghettoes and no-go areas in some of our housing areas. The Selayang market immediately comes to mind. But the solution is not to label every foreigner as a threat to national security or a risk to public health and safety, or an economic competitor. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia has reported, for example, that there are 47,000 nationals from Myanmar registered with them, with their refugee status still being determined. As many more are unregistered. 7,000 of them are of school-going age. What we need to do is to register them, nourish them, accommodate them, care for their health and well-being, educate them, employ them. So long as they remain on the periphery of society, they will be categorised as “non-persons” (since Malaysia has not signed the 1951 Convention on Refugees and does not recognise the concept of a refugee in our laws) and be viewed as an anonymous and faceless but ever-present threat or risk.

Our basic common humanity and, for those of us who are people of faith, our religious values demand no less: that they be treated with dignity and compassion. Labelling them as dirty, diseased and dangerous and blaming them for our problems, which is essentially what you have done in your article, is certainly not the way forward.

Andrew Khoo Chin Hock

Kuala Lumpur