138 Myanmar detainees in Malaysia set to return home

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 7 (IANS) The first batch of 138 Myanmar nationals detained in Malaysia is set to return home on Monday, official sources said on Sunday.

The detainees, who have been issued Certificate of Identity, under the arrangement with the Kanbawza's Brighter Future Myanmar Foundation will return to Myanmar on a Myanmar International flight from Kuala Lumpur, Myanmar's Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

At present, 2,294 Myanmarese nationals are detained in 11 camps in Malayasia, the sources added.

In March 2015, a Myanmarese Navy warship carried back 102 illegal Myanmarese immigrants from Malaysia who were kept at detention camps.

More than 400,000 Myanmar immigrants are reportedly working in Malaysia, of whom about 300,000 are legal entrants, while about 40,000 are illegal. The rest are involved in various processes for refugee status.

Myanmar authorities are cooperating with Malaysian officials to protect their citizens working in the Southeast Asian country as they are often targeted victims of violence and murder there.

In September 2013, Myanmar started recalling its citizens detained in Malaysia for working illegally there.

Immigrants, refugees share stories at forum

Monica Reyes

WATERLOO — Gunda Brost experienced “Iowa nice” when she was a child and her family immigrated from Germany.

“But sometimes it’s very superficial,” she said. “If you want to make people feel welcome, actually mean it. If you ask how are you doing, take some time and listen to their story.”

Brost, now a Cedar Falls immigration lawyer, offered the advice Thursday to a hardy crowd who gathered at the Black Hawk County YWCA in Waterloo to hear Cedar Valley immigrants and refugees share their stories, hopes and dreams.

The event, sponsored by Cedar Valley Advocates for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and other organizations, was designed to prompt a conversation and foster understanding about the area’s growing and diverse newcomers.

“Whether we like it our not, there’s always going to be immigrants,” said panelist Monica Reyes. “There’s going to be people fleeing whatever problems they have, and we need to (have) a system that accepts them.”

Reyes was 3 when her mother fled her abusive husband in Mexico, but she has not been allowed to gain citizenship. Reyes and her sister have become advocates for immigration reform.

“When you call somebody illegal — even if you’re saying ‘illegal immigrant’ — that is taking away their humanity,” she said. “I’m just like you guys: educated. I debated Hawkeyes versus Cyclones my whole childhood. I grew up with corn dogs, hamburgers, chips.”

America is a much newer and more difficult place still for Burmese immigrants Shaw Reh and Liani, who both fled their native country during civil war. They spent many years living in refugee camps in Thailand and Malaysia, respectively, before making it to the U.S., where their families eventually found jobs at Tyson Fresh Meats.

Liani recalls crying every night as her family, expected to find work within three months of arriving in the U.S., struggled with language and other barriers.

“We could not speak any English so we had many troubles,” she said. “Ninety days is not enough to learn American culture or learn English.”

Reh, who spent his first 13 years growing up in a refugee camp, said he was picked on by classmates when he attended grade school in Louisville, Ky. But he noted “in Iowa, people are nicer.”

Bullying of immigrant and refugees is something Dema Kazkaz said must be addressed in schools.

A Muslim who immigrated from Syria 18 years ago, Kazkaz said her kids and other children of Middle Eastern descent were often treated poorly in schools after 9/11 and again today.

“Unfortunately that Islamophobia industry is alive in election years,” Kazkaz said. “These candidates will just keep competing who wants to get more voters by fear mongering.”

Panelist Umaru Balde is a native of Guinea-Bissau who was given away by his father to a Muslim sheikh, lived on the streets, joined the military at age 14 and fled the country in 2008 when civil war erupted.

He works at the YWCA today helping other immigrants and refugees adjust to life in Iowa. Balde hoped the forum would encourage others to pay more attention to the needs of their new neighbors.

“Some people are tolerant but they’re not accepting, and there’s a difference,” he said. “People want to be accepted.”

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Msia will not sign convention on refugees

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia does not have any intention to be a state party of Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951 and its Protocol 1967, for now, Dewan Rakyat was told today. Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina said the government stand on the matter remains, but it would continue to extend assistance to the refugees including Rohingya and those from Middle East based on humanitarian grounds.

"The government make the decision to whether ratify the convention based on evaluation of its capacity. However, Malaysia has allowed refugees with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) status to seek shelter here while waiting for resettlement to third country or return to their homeland. "In terms of welfare, they are allowed access to medical services at public clinics and hospitals at a 50 per cent discounted rate imposed on expatriates, while vaccination for children is free.

They are not stopped from getting formal education at private schools run by their community or non-governmental organisations," he said in reply to a question by Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (PKR-Permatang Pauh). On humanitarian assistance to Syria's refugees, Reezal said the government had contributed $US500,000 to Syria during the Second International Humanitarian Pledging Conference (IHPC) in Kuwait on Jan 15 last year. "This was aimed to help Syrians in and outside their homeland, as well as to ease burden of countries who are now host to some 4 million Syrian immigrants. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak during the 70th United Nations General Assembly in September in New York had also announced that Malaysia would accept 3,000 Syrian migrants within three years to help address the refugee crises."

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Malaysia says 'no' to signing refugee convention

Despite opening its doors to more refugees, Malaysia does not intend to become a party to two United Nations treaties that define what a refugee is and the responsibilities states have towards them.

Deputy Foreign Minister Reezal Merican Naina told parliament Wednesday that Malaysia remains determined not to sign the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol for the time being, but will continue to assist those from Myanmar and the Middle East.

"The assistance that we extend is based solely on humanitarian grounds. We do not want to enter as a state party of the convention to be forced to accept the refugees," he said.

"The government has made the decision as to whether to ratify the convention based on an evaluation of its capacity."

Naina underlined that despite Malaysia's steadfast position on the agreements, it had allowed those awarded refugee status by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to seek shelter while waiting for resettlement to a third country or a return to their homeland.

UNHCR refugees currently living in Malaysia include Sri Lankans and Muslim Rohingyas.

"In terms of welfare, they are allowed access to medical services at public clinics and hospitals at a 50 percent discount [to prices] imposed on expatriates, while vaccination for children is free," Naina said.

"They are not stopped from getting formal education at private schools run by their community or non-governmental organizations."

Naina also said that besides Prime Minister Najib Razak's recent commitment to accept 3,000 Syrian migrants within the next three years, the government had also contributed $500,000 to help Syrians during the Second International Humanitarian Pledging Conference (IHPC) in Kuwait on Jan. 15 last year.

"This was aimed at helping Syrians in and outside their homeland, as well as to ease the burden on countries who are now host to some four million Syrian immigrants."

Rohingya have been fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar since sectarian violence erupted in 2012 -- many in the hope of employment in Malaysia.

The South East Asia boat people crisis began early May after Thai authorities launched a crackdown against people-smuggling camps, scaring traffickers into abandoning their human cargo -- mostly Bangladeshis and Muslim Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar -- at sea.

Following a tri-nation conference on the crisis May 20, Indonesia and Malaysia announced they would take the Rohingya in for one year before the international community finds homes for them, while repatriating the Bangladeshis.

UNHCR report reveals debilitating impact of statelessness on children

Stateless children across the world share similar feelings of discrimination, frustration and despair, says a new UNHCR report, creating problems that can endure into adulthood.

The first geographically diverse survey of the views of stateless children says the common problems they face in the countries under review profoundly affect their ability to enjoy childhood, lead a healthy life, study and fulfil their ambitions.

Many of the dozens of young people in seven countries interviewed for the I am Here, I Belong: the Urgent Need to End Childhood Statelessness report said that being stateless had taken a serious psychological toll, describing themselves as "invisible," "alien," "living in a shadow," "like a street dog" and "worthless."

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres stressed that the report, released one year after the launch of UNHCR's #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024, highlights the need to end the suffering of stateless children in a world where a child is born stateless at least every 10 minutes.

"In the short time that children get to be children, statelessness can set in stone grave problems that will haunt them throughout their childhoods and sentence them to a life of discrimination, frustration and despair," said Guterres. "None of our children should be stateless. All children should belong."

The High Commissioner will, at the UN Headquarters in New York today, present the report at a high-level panel discussion on the importance of the right to nationality. More than 250 people, including children, youth and their parents or guardians were interviewed in Côte d'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Georgia, Italy, Jordan, Malaysia and Thailand last July and August for the report.

In the report, the children tell of the tough challenges they face growing up, often on the margins of society, denied the rights most citizens enjoy. Stateless children say they are often treated like foreigners in the country they have lived in all their lives.

Stateless young people are often denied the opportunity to receive school qualifications, go to university and find a decent job. They face discrimination and harassment by authorities and are more vulnerable to exploitation. Their lack of nationality often sentences them and their families and communities to remain impoverished and marginalized for generations.

Statelessness also affects the future of young people. One young woman in Asia, told UNHCR researchers that she has been unable to take up job offers as a teacher because she is stateless and can only find work in a local shop. "I want to tell the country, that there are many people like me."

UNHCR is calling on more countries to support the campaign launched on November 4, 2014 to end statelessness. In the year since, regional initiatives and action by states have seen the global community rally behind the campaign.

In order to end statelessness, UNHCR is urging all states to take the following steps:

• Allow children to gain the nationality of the country in which they are born if they would otherwise be stateless.
• Reform laws that prevent mothers from passing their nationality to their children on an equal basis as fathers.
• Eliminate laws and practices that deny children nationality because of their ethnicity, race or religion.
• Ensure universal birth registration to prevent statelessness.a

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Election brings hope, fear for Myanmar refugees stuck in limbo

MAE SOT: For refugees from Myanmar living in camps just across the border in Thailand, a landmark election in their homeland triggers mixed emotions – hope that a hated government will be defeated, and fear of the uncertain future such an upheaval might bring.

Ko Chit, 45, who lives in Mae La refugee camp, the largest of the nine camps that are home to around 110,000 people, is typical of those who spoke to Reuters.

He wants opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) to win the Nov. 8 poll, the country’s first free and fair election in a generation, but worries that could result in being sent back to Myanmar when it remains unsafe.

“The situation is not yet stable and we cannot go back because of fighting and persecution,” Ko Chit said. “If there is no non-governmental organization to support us there, it would be better to stay in the camp.”

For many who spoke to Reuters, the looming fear is that an NLD win will prompt Thailand to declare it is now safe for them to go back and shutter the camps.

Some residents have been living in the camps for 30 years. Nearly 80 percent are ethnic Karen from eastern Myanmar who fled armed conflict and often persecution at the hands of the Myanmar army during decades of military rule.

Trusting the Myanmar government does not come easily. A quasi-civilian administration now holds power after the junta stepped aside in 2011, ushering in a period of reform, but most senior figures in the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) are former generals.

Under the constitution, the military will hold 25 percent of seats in parliament regardless of the outcome. It will also retain control of all portfolios related to national security.

The Myanmar government was not immediately available for comment.

Fragile ceasefire

None of those in the camps will be able to vote. More important to them, in any case, is a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement signed between Myanmar’s government and eight armed ethnic groups last month.

“If the refugees are to return, an end to fighting, the withdrawal of troops and security of land tenure are just some of the conditions they need – something no party can guarantee, at least not in the near future,” said Sally Thompson, Executive Director at The Border Consortium, which coordinates activities in the camps.

For the refugees, returning is not an option, at least for now.

“We are afraid. We have no land to go back to. The army is still in many villages,” said Oo Say Ha, 66, who lives in Mae La camp.

Thailand has no timeframe for the refugees return, Sansern Kaewkamnerd, Thai government spokesman, told Reuters.

“We will not interfere with Myanmar’s election. Whatever the outcome, if there is peace, we will encourage people to return.”

Thailand has not signed a 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, nor does it have a specific law on refugees. With the opening up of Myanmar, the Thai government has promoted the return of refugees as a realistic option.

Just months after the taking power in a 2014 coup, the Thai junta said it would send home refugees living in the camps, a move rights groups said would create chaos.

General Ner Dah Mya, head of the Karen National Defence Organisation, a military wing of the Karen National Union that largely controls Karen state, said he did not believe the ceasefire agreement his group has joined will hold.

“If the refugees are deep inside Myanmar and something happens, it won’t be easy for them to move out again,” he told Reuters. “There is a fine line between life and death.”

– Reuters

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