Four Immigration officers nabbed for ‘releasing’ refugees from depots

Four Immigration Department officers are remanded on allegation of soliciting and receiving money for the early release of UNHCR refugees detained at the Langkap detention depot. — Picture by Farhan Najib 

IPOH, June 10 — Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission officers believe they have stumbled upon syndicates that arrange the “early release” of Rohingya and Chin refugees from immigration depots in Perak, Penang, Pahang and Kuala Lumpur with the arrest of four officers from the Langkap Immigration Detention Depot near Teluk Intan on Monday.

It is learnt they are hot on the heels of others from the depot who had helped in the deals that cost refugees between RM2,000 and RM3,000 per person.

At least 10 refugees, all not holders of United Nations Human Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cards, are said to have been released by the officers who took them out on the pretext of meeting UNHCR officials.

The officers, support staff in the KP17 grade category in their 30s, were ordered to be remanded for seven days by the magistrates court yesterday to facilitate investigations into alleged soliciting and receiving of money to release Rohingya and Chin refugees.

Sources said MACC had got wind of their activities in November after several people lodged reports.

The officers had escaped detection as they had used the excuse UNHCR rules required non-cardholders detained by the department to be taken out of the depot to meet officials from the agency.

The syndicates, which operated closely, are said to also comprise middlemen who discussed arrangements with the immigration officers.

The Langkap depot is one of the Immigration Department’s major detention facilities and is equipped to deal with a large number of refugees.

Asked if MACC had frozen the banking accounts of the officers, the source said this was in the process of being done.

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

Community-building calls for humanitarian action

IT is surreal, is it not, that here we are talking about an Asean community, and yet are unable to address in concert the wave of Rohingya refugees arriving in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand from the Arakan coast of Myanmar, or are being turned back into the Andaman Sea to suffer an uncertain fate.

That changed a little when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak gave the humane instruction to the navy and maritime agency to not push them back and to in fact pick up those bobbing about in the sea.

(The last time Malaysia faced this kind of boat people crisis – involving the Vietnamese in the 1980s – then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad – threatened to shoot them; Foreign Minister King Ghaz attempted to explain this away by saying his prime minister said “shoo them” – but nobody was fooled).

Anyway, back to the present crisis. While there is some progress from the meeting in Putrajaya last Wednesday among the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, it is as nothing against the enormity of the humanitarian calamity and depth of the problem. Even then, Thailand was not able to agree NOT to push back to sea the refugees arriving in rickety boats, despite a cap on the numbers based on an estimation of those out at sea, and the caveat that those accepted onshore will be housed until resettlement in third countries within one year.

The elephant NOT in the room, of course, is Myanmar, from where most if not all of these refugees originate. The Malaysian foreign minister flew there on Thursday to engage Naypyidaw. Interestingly Myanmar which has been adamant about not attending any meeting to discuss the crisis originating from its shores, has relented a bit, largely because of international pressure to do so.

Hopefully some basic mechanism to stem the problem can be found. The deeper issue of the treatment of the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state – in which everyone has been complicit, businessmen looking for opportunity since Myanmar’s opening up in 2011, right up to Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi – is however a long way from being addressed.

There are also the cruel and callous human traffickers taking advantage of people trying to escape persecution and poverty. They need to be tracked down in the countries from which they operate. There is finger pointing between Malaysia and Thailand on this, but let us not forget Bangladesh is also in the equation.

The problem is thus not an easy one to resolve. Even in high standard-setting Europe, there is an inability to handle the refugees arriving in Italy from North Africa. Navies are turning them back. There is no agreement on quotas among European Union (EU) member states for resettlement. There is therefore no cause for a European holier-than-thou attitude when inveighing against what is happening in South-East Asia.

However, there are some significant differences which make South-East Asia look bad in comparison. At least the EU members are talking to one another. Here in Asean, not only does Myanmar deny any responsibility for the Rohingya refugee problem, the rest of the member states are reluctant to tell it squarely and openly: look here mate that is absolute nonsense and let us get rid of this fiction.

What is it about Myanmar that Asean falls over itself to shield that recalcitrant state? Asean molly-coddled it when most of the rest of the world isolated the country. Indeed the regional grouping welcomed the country as a member state in 1997, saying contact not isolation will make the country’s leaders change. When change came in 2011, Asean celebrated with “I told you so”.

Last year Myanmar was awarded grand recognition when it became the chair of Asean. What has Myanmar given Asean in return? Isn’t it about time it did so?

That question should be the sub-theme of a regional conference that must be held soon to discuss the Rohingya sea people problem. It is not about reprimanding Myanmar, but about its taking responsibility to resolve the regional problem it has mainly caused – without even going into the R2P (responsibility to protect) obligation in respect of the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, which must ultimately be resolved.

Less than a month ago, on 27th April, Asean issued the Kuala Lumpur declaration on a people-centric Asean at the end of its summit. How good is the declaration – and Asean – when even before the ink has dried there is this violation of people for all the world to see?

Asean is diminished. At precisely the time it is about to pronounce establishment of a community at the end of the year, its credibility is undermined. Can Asean peoples have a sense of belief in what their leaders grandly commemorate when lives so wretched are so openly lost without effective regional attention?

In this crisis, Thailand calls for a meeting, Myanmar refuses to attend, Malaysia calls for a meeting but only among states at the receiving end – no Myanmar – and Thailand is missing from the podium and flag at the press conference at the end of it. The Thai foreign minister goes off after telling his counterparts his country cannot commit to accepting the sea people even temporarily because of “domestic laws” but does not meet the press to say so. Then his Prime Minister says Thailand will not accept the refugees.

Next the Malaysian foreign minister flies to Myanmar (the mountain coming to Mohamad). Then Myanmar relents a bit, largely because of international pressure. There is effort, but at sixes and sevens.

In this crisis so far, only the decisions of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib and Indonesian President Jokowi can be recognised as positive (not to forget also that of the Turks, from almost the other side of the world, who have quietly sent a ship to our regional – Asean – waters, to do the humanitarian task of picking up those who are dying at sea).

If Asean wants to be called a community – and an allegedly people-oriented one at that – it should at least have a clear structure of meeting and decision-making when there is a crisis and lives are at stake. It has many somnambulistic bodies and contradiction-in-terms task forces which never swing into action in a timely manner because clear decisions are never made.

It is not clear where the decision-making lies. It is the Asean way to leave it vague. That does not work in a crisis. As Asean chair, Malaysia should have the leaders address this issue of acting in a crisis, instead of just acting in well-choreographed events and summits.

Tan Sri Dr Munir Majid, chairman of Bank Muamalat and visiting senior fellow at LSE Ideas (Centre for International Affairs, Diplomacy and Strategy), is also chairman of CIMB Asean Research Institute.

Refugees and our meaningless celebration of hijrah

Abdar Rahman Koya works for The Malaysian Insider. He considers himself to have all the qualities of an ordinary Malaysian, a practising Muslim, and an incorrigible cynic.

Published: 23 May 2015

So it took several days, and probably several funerals at sea, before Asean leaders realised the value of human lives.

While the decision to rescue thousands of Rohingya refugees starving in their rickety boats in the middle of the ocean is welcome, the whole affair brings to question so-called Asian values, once trumpeted by leaders in this region, including the late Lee Kuan Yew, who is now venerated almost to Orwellian proportions as the saint of Singapore.

It is also interesting to note that until the Najib government finally decided to save human lives, all Islamic rhetoric coming from suspicious groups dressed in Islamic attire was mute. But when they did protest, it was not helpful at all, one group even reinforcing the hate between Rohingya and other Myanmarese with a call on Malaysia to expel all workers from Myanmar.

The undeniable fact is that among the first to call for action to protect the hapless men, women and children, all Muslims, were those groups which the authorities have demonised, using such misunderstood terms as pluralist, secularist, liberal and anti-Islam.

Here were thousands of people risking their lives sailing for hundreds of miles, thinking that this Muslim government, which has made so much noise about the plight of the Palestinians and other persecuted Muslims at the other end of the world, would accept them, at least to have a temporary refuge, so that mothers could breastfeed their infants and toddlers could sleep in peace.

Their expectations were not unrealistic. After all, about two decades ago, this country flew in thousands of blue-eyed, silver-haired Muslims, gave them refuge, scholarships, jobs, even husbands and wives, many of whom ended up as citizens, others preferring Western countries. And they didn’t even have to be practising Muslims. They were nominal, the majority of them hardly able to read the Quran or perform Islamic rituals.

Whether or not the same humanitarian zeal was extended to the Rohingya without hesitation is anybody’s guess.

It was shameful that the leaders actually had to discuss it before they did what any human beings would do when hungry women and children cry for help at their doorstep.

Contrast this with the Libyan refugee crisis faced by Italian authorities. No one waited for top officials to meet before deciding to rescue thousands of refugees who had ventured out into the sea.

Oh, but we must be careful of setting a precedence. We cannot open the floodgates, so goes the clichéd argument to push them back to sea. Such false pragmatism has no place when it comes to saving innocent lives, and certainly would not have been shown had the babies crying in the middle of the ocean been their nephews and nieces.

The fact that people from Libya, a victim of European colonial brutality, would confidently seek better lives from their former oppressors shows how much better and more civilised Western countries are about protecting refugees.

The fact that some of their governments are engaged in launching deadly drones does not negate the fact that they place more value on displaced and stateless people when they come crying for help, to live a life with dignity away from war and poverty.

Malaysians in general still suffer from insecurity over a group of people from an underdeveloped country coming in to build their lives here.

The argument against recognising and helping refugees can be summed up like this: our humanitarian gesture could set a bad precedent and undermine the country’s sovereignty. It is the same argument we hear from Malaysians who are so used to treating non-tourist, non-Caucasian and non-Arab foreigners as second class.

Crimes, street begging and social ills are some of the key words used, and politicians from both sides of the divide feed into such xenophobia, no matter how loud the noise they make about domestic human rights. 

Only recently, I stumbled upon one such call from a little known PKR vice-president, Darell Leiking, who blasted his email complete with pictures to all media, calling for action against some Pakistani-looking foreigners, all because they were running sundry shops in his constituency!

We have also heard overzealous calls to expel the thousands of foreigners who have been given citizenship in Sabah using questionable methods. Never mind that their locally born Malaysian children had no role in this illegal exercise, or that they would be forced to leave their “tanah tumpah darah” and become orphans if their parents were expelled, all in the name of sovereignty.

It is like sending children born out of wedlock to the forests because their parents committed adultery and their birth in this world did not follow “proper procedures”.

As a nation claiming to have developed status in five years’ time, this anti-refugee sentiment is shameful. As a nation governed by Muslims and backed by some of the loudest Islamic rhetoric in the Muslim world, it is detestable.

For 15 years, the United Nations has been celebrating June 20 every year as World Refugees Day.

But for 1,500 years, Muslims have unknowingly been honouring refugees, even recognising the act of migration by a group of early Muslims, so much so that it has become the basis of the Islamic calendar.

Prophet Muhammad was probably the most prominent Muslim refugee. At Islam’s infancy, a group of Muslims who were persecuted by the elites of Mecca fled to Abyssinia and sought refuge with a Christian king called Negus, whose kindness is narrated in every story about Muhammad’s prophethood.

Some years later, Muhammad himself set out to venture from his birthplace of Mecca, with hundreds of others, secretly departing to seek refuge in a land faraway, Medina. This was called hijrah, or emigration, and the incident is commemorated till this day on the Islamic new year, or Awal Muharram.

There is a lesson in both stories. In the first, giving protection to refugees transcends religion and race. Here is a Christian king giving refuge to a set of Muslims who are out to propagate a religion that does not believe in his version of Jesus.

In the second, God shows us that no nation is superior. The more “refined” Medinans readily accepted the Meccans, whose character and physical complexion reflected the scorching hot Meccan climate.

Yet, the Medinans offered to share their crops and land and even divorced wives for the Meccans to marry, the highest act of generosity in pre-Islamic Arabia.

The lessons from Negus and the Medinans, which we repeat every year to our children whenever we celebrate Awal Muharram, are lost in wasteful ceremonies.

Every year, we dish out the “Maal Hijrah Award” to individuals for their contribution to society. Not one of these has gone to the men and women who championed the refugees, the same people who engineered the hijrah.

Consider, for example, the treatment meted out to the late Irene Fernandez, who risked her freedom to fight for the rights of migrants and refugees. She was instead prosecuted, indeed persecuted with the longest court trial. Her death didn’t get even a line of condolence from the same people lecturing every year about the hijrah.

Migration and migrants will continue to shape the world, and Malaysia is no exception. But many among us take for granted that Malaysia’s demographical evolution has been completed, never mind the fact that all around the world, some of the most established countries continue to evolve demographically, accepting alien cultures and pushing race to irrelevance, forever changing their definition of national identity and nationhood.

We must stop thinking that only our grandparents who ventured from mainland China, the Arabian peninsula, Thailand, Indonesia and the Indian subcontinent deserved to be given citizenship.

Indeed, it is time Malaysians stop thinking that their so-called social fabric is threatened by emigrants who come here with their culture and enterprise. Because human populations will continue to evolve, and so must we. – May 23, 2015.

* 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

“Refugees’ Stories” for World Refugee Day on 20th June 2013

The Sky is Bigger By Ana (Iraq )

I still remember the first day I came to Malaysia. I saw for the first time in my life really high buildings, new faces. I think even the sky looked bigger and clearer. The clouds were close and I felt as though I could touch them. I remember how scared I was. The first years in Malaysia were really hard for me. I was only 15 when I came. I had my mother and my brother with me but I still felt alone even though I was not. I was born in Iraq. At age 3, I had to leave. I don’t remember why. After that I was living in Jordan before I came to Malaysia. When you become a refugee, people looked at you differently. Even though they don’t know anything about you or why you became a refugee. They don’t know how hard it is to leave your country where you thought you would live forever. They treat you differently, look at you differently. As if we are not humans like them. Back in the days, I think people used to care for one another, help each other. I am talking about everyone in the world, not just my country and here. But now every one cares about themselves. They don’t like to help, they are not very nice to you, always lying. If you want directions, they won’t help you. I don’t know why. People should treat refugees well, because you never know. Tomorrow that could be your life.

World Refugee Day 2012: Reality or Daydream for Tamils?

New York, NY (PRWEB) June 19, 2012 

This year’s World Refugee Day marks the "61st anniversary of the creation of the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR. The United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 55/76 decided that, beginning 2001, 20 June would be celebrated as World Refugee Day. As amended by its 1967 protocol, it defines a refugee as a person who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country..." as reported by UN Democracy.

Over the years, while much focus has been on "refugees from the African continent, Balkans, and Southeast Asia," the plight of Tamil refugees and displaced persons from Sri Lanka have been neglected," explained the diaspora elected Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE). Since the end of Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict in May of 2009 between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), there has been a mass exodus of Tamil refugees globally. In a matter of three days, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, 40,000 people were killed, in an aerial bombardment of the Tamil homeland of the Northeast, also known as Tamil Eelam. Scores of surrendered Tamil Tiger rebels, and civilians were tortured, raped, and massacred. According to the TGTE, “due to economic, political and personal insecurity compounded by refusal of access to international aid agencies, boatloads of Tamil refugees have fled the conflict across the globe to Southeast Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, and South and the Americas.”

“In October of 2009, 225 Tamil asylum seekers headed towards Australia were detained off the coast of Indonesia,” according to the Christian Science Monitor. Australian newspaper ‘The Age’ reported that “a phone call from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono resulted in the interception of the boat. Amongst the asylum seekers were 27 women and 31 children who pled with Rudd to allow them to accept them into the country. They were immediately detained in Indonesia. A year later, the Indonesian government allowed the Sri Lankan Navy to interrogate the detainees.” On a positive note, the TGTE Ministry stated that “women and children were released from custody, after Canadian international refugee lawyer David Matas visited with the Indonesian authorities on this matter.”

“In July of 2011, 87 Tamil refugees aboard the ship ‘MV Elyssa’ headed to New Zealand were taken into custody by the Indonesian Navy,” according to sources from Tamil Net.” Upon reports of the detainees, “three men suffered from shrapnel wounds to the head needed immediate medical attention, while one pregnant lady was about to go into labor.” Minister Muthukumarasamy Ratna took immediate steps to contact the UNHCR and the International Organization of Migration (IMO). The TGTE Ministry including the Tamil diaspora strongly urged New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to take them in. The response from the New Zealand Prime Minister was, “Our very simple message to them is they are not welcome here.” Prime Minister Key’s actions were strongly criticized by Green Party MP; Keith Locke where he pointed out that the Prime Minister’s own mother was an asylum seeker, fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939.

In Malaysia, it is estimated that there are well over “4000 Tamil refugees and asylum seekers,” according to human rights organization SUARAM. The IPS reported that “Malaysia is a dangerous place for refugees who are often abused, arrested and treated like criminals.” According to Amnesty International, “the refugees ‘lack of legal status in Malaysia means they can be punished with imprisonment of up to five years and whipping for illegally entering the country.” In a fact finding mission to Malaysia, at the beginning of 2012, the TGTE Ministry stated that, “numerous Tamil refugees claimed that exploitation, kidnappings, and even rapes have occurred amongst them in Malaysia. There were also a large number of war widows left with children who are barred from attending schools.” Minister M. Ratna stated that, “though Malaysia is not a signatory country to the 1951 Refugee Convention; it is still subject to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The convention provides that children of asylum seekers and refugees shall ‘receive appropriate protection, humanitarian assistance, and education while cooperating with the UN, in providing those services.’’ SUARAM stated that “Malaysia has shown no intention of ratifying the 1951 UNHRC Refugee Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.”

On a positive note, there have been countries that have taken steps on ensuring the safety and welfare of Tamil asylum seekers. One of these happens to come from the South American country of Ecuador. The TGTE Ministry reported that, “on April 3, 2011, we received reports of 21 Tamil asylum seekers detained in Ecuador by authorities. The following day the UNHCR was contacted about this matter, and several days later all 21 of them and were released.”

While UNHRC member countries like Ecuador have assisted asylum seekers and refugees, others have not lived up to their commitment to human rights. One in particular was the West African country of Togo. The TGTE Ministry stated that, “a phone call was received from within a refugee camp from one of the detainees of the arrest of 203 Tamil asylum seekers and refugees on November of 2011.” According the BBC, “Tamil detainees including 19 women and children, say they had to endure bad weather and humiliating treatment by guards at the stadium.” “UNHCR protecting Officer Stephanie Woldenberg was notified of this by the TGTE Ministry. She requested permission to see the refugees along with the Togolese Red Cross. The detainees reported to her of the detention center’s inadequacy and poor standards, with no medical facilities. After December 25, 2011, she was denied access to them by the Togolese authority. The Ministry further reported that “leaked information was received from within the center of Sri Lankan agents meeting with the detainees claiming to be with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). According to the caller, “The agents refused to disclose their names, where they took three males to a separate location and forced them to sign documents to return to Sri Lanka. They were stripped naked and tortured, after refusing to sign. The rest of the detainees were threatened with the same treatment if they did not sign the documents.” Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews flew to Togo to ensure that none of the Tamil refugees were to be allowed to seek asylum in Canada in accordance to its recently enforced anti-immigration Bill C-4 he endorsed. The TGTE Ministry stopped receiving calls from the Togo detainees. While the fate of the 203 Tamil asylum seekers remained unknown from the Ministries last contact, Sri Lankan media such as the Colombo Times stated that, “batches of 20 to 30 asylum seekers, started being transferred back to Sri Lanka each week.”

“Since the 1990s, Canada has been a welcoming nation for refugees and asylum seekers, and is home to over 300,000 Eelam Tamils. However, in recent years, there has been a growing anger over the influx of refugees into the country by right wing conservatives leading to the creation of the anti-immigration Bill C-4.” According to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, “Bill C-4 imposes the mandatory incarceration of groups of asylum seekers, including children, prevents any review of the imprisonment, and created a second class of refugees.” CanadaVisa reported that, “the arrival by sea aboard the MV Sun Sea in September of 2010 of 492 Tamil asylum seekers continues to serve as a lightning rod for anti-immigration sentiment in Canada.” To date, according to the National Post, “of the 492 Sri Lankans who arrived, only three have been recognized as refugees while 13 claims have been withdrawn and five abandoned.”

“The United Kingdom has been one of the countries of destinations by those fleeing conflict since the outbreak of the ethnic conflict in1983, until in recent years,” according to Amnesty International. Since the proscription of the LTTE, Britain has been harsh on Tamil asylum seekers. Human Rights Watch stated that they “were concerned about the deportation of 100 Tamil asylum seekers, scheduled for deportation in February 28, 2012. They found that “some returned Tamil asylum seekers from the United Kingdom have been subjected to arbitrary arrest and torture upon their return to Sri Lanka.” In a most recent report on June 3, 2012, UKs Independent stated that, “dozens of Tamil asylum seekers were forcibly removed from Britain on a secretive deportation flight despite credible evidence that they face arrest and retribution on their return. According to Britain’s Channel 4 News, “photographs of some of the returnees were later published by the Sri Lankan Daily Mirror newspaper, and that many of the failed asylum seekers were followed by intelligence after leaving the airport.” The forced removals came as Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa flew into the UK to join the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.”

In India, “there are over 70,000 people confined to around 132 camps in Tamil Nadu and Orissa since the start of the ethnic conflict from 1983 till present. There are a lot of restrictions on their movements, employment and education of children. Sadly, the plight of Tamil asylum seekers has not improved in India,” reported South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC). The TGTE Ministry stated that, “Since the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, there has been great suspicion and hostility towards the refugees by authorities in India.” The SAHRDC further reported that, “the plight of Tamil asylum seekers has not improved in India. For many refugees, the conditions in the Tamil Nadu camps are worse. Essentially, the Indian Government has been and continues to violate key human rights of the refugees. The refugees have been stripped of such basic human rights as freedom to leave the campsites, proper medical assistance, and non-refoulement.” The TGTE Ministry further stated that they, “plan to do a fact finding mission to the state of Tamil Nadu. The refugees lack in healthcare and education will be addressed to the current Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha.”

Deputy Minister Alex Doss claims that “The denial of Tamil refugees in a number of countries is all due to the Bush administrations self-proclaimed war on terror, also started by the right wing conservative groups in the country. From branding certain ethnic groups including women, children, and the elderly as terrorists, this led to an anti-immigrant stance of all non-Anglos in Western countries. This is nothing more than a resurgence of neo fascism in the Western World feeding into the bloodlust genocidal killers and war criminals globally. The suffering of the Tamil people lies not with the LTTE, but the ignorance and naivety of the international community succumbing to fear mongering and hate. World Refugee Day is meaningless if refugees cannot be assisted by the signatoree UNHCR countries for resettlement.” Deputy Minister Doss further stated that, “with the attitude towards refugees in the post 9/11 era, would there ever have been a World Refugee Day if the attacks on America took place on June 11, 2001?”

“The refusal of Tamils, or any other asylum seekers, after credible evidence of persecution from the countries of their destination is very irresponsible, and inhumane. These countries who deny access to Tamil asylum seekers are only abetting war criminals from hiding the truth, and that Sri Lanka’s keen interest in tracking down Tamil asylum seekers is to silence the ‘would be’ key witnesses to war crimes committed by the perpetrators. Apart from being granted access to resettlement, Tamil asylum seekers are being denied their basic human rights in areas of healthcare, education, and security. The global community has a moral obligation to uphold and defend the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as adopted by the United Nations sixty years ago, of which they are a part of. Will World Refugee Day 2012 be a reality, or daydream for Tamils?”

Source : http://www.prweb.com

SHOWBIZ: Stars to the aid of refugees

It’s World Refugee Day today and local celebrities have come out to help UNHCR raise public awareness

CELEBRITIES have come forth to support the refugee cause, in the latest effort by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to raise public awareness, in conjunction with World Refugee Day today.
Five celebrities are photographed with refugees, calling for the public to help the refugees to rebuild their lives. The five are Miss Universe Malaysia and refugee rights activist Deborah Henry, TV personality Aishah Sinclair, TV anchor and journalist Daphne Iking, entrepreneur and singer Reshmonu, and singer-songwriter Reza Salleh.
They are featured in a series of five posters that carry the central messages of compassion and empathy for refugees who have been forced to flee their countries due to armed conflicts and human rights abuse. The posters appeal for support for these refugees who work tirelessly to help their own communities while they are here, in areas such as education, livelihoods and healthcare.
The posters will be displayed at Bangsar Village One concourse from today until July 1.
The public can help by making donations, volunteering their time, or speaking about the issue to others. The campaign also aims to mobilise support for refugee-run projects, while creating a positive perception of refugees as empowered and hard-working individuals.
The posters were developed through the pro bono services of advertising agency Leo Burnett Malaysia and photographer Ted Adnan Asmadi.
Aishah visited a refugee women’s empowerment centre called Mang Tha, run by a group of refugee women from Myanmar. In the poster, she is photographed with a refugee woman who is teaching her fellow refugees to weave fabric with a traditional loom.
Aishah’s message is “Many refugee women do not have livelihood skills, but are willing to learn so that they can provide for their families. Just do one thing to help them as they help themselves”.
Daphne sits with a group of pre-school refugee children from countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Iran at a centre called Sahabat Centre. The children are eager for her attention, and she patiently interacts with each one. As a mother, her passion for protecting children’s rights is apparent.
“Refugee kids deserve a normal childhood, free of fear. We can help make a safer environment for them to play in and just be children,” she says.
In a cramped classroom in an informal learning centre run by a Myanmar refugee group, Reza Salleh obliges the crowd’s request for a sing-a-long session. Several songs later, he is photographed with refugee children from Myanmar, as he shows the chords to a refugee youth who is eager to learn music.
In his poster, Reza says “Refugee youth need to survive in a modern world. If we can do one thing to help them, it’s to give them a chance at a better future.”
Reshmonu visited a Rohingya refugee family of 13 from Myanmar. They live in a small terrace house, where there is only one breadwinner in the family. The women are at home when he visits, getting ready the midday meal. In spite of their difficult circumstances, they are happy to be together and safe.
Reshmonu’s message is “Refugees left their homes because of war and human rights abuse. What they need now is space to rebuild their lives in safety and with dignity. Surely we can help them.”
Deborah is no stranger to advocating for the rights of refugees. She helped set up Fugee School in 2009, a learning centre for Somali refugees here which recently expanded to include skills-building classes for Somali women.
She is photographed with some of the older students who are learning to sew so that they can be self-sustaining.
Her message is “Refugees are not looking for charity. Like us, they do not want to be a burden. Let them work legally and they can provide for themselves.”
Create a humanitarian space

• World Refugee Day is celebrated worldwide on June 20 each year to recognise the courage of refugees in rebuilding their lives despite the horrors they have faced, and to create awareness and garner public support for creating a humanitarian space for them.
• As of end April, there are some 98,100 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UN Refugee Agency in Malaysia. Some 89,900 are from Myanmar, comprising some 34,430 Chins, 22,840 Rohingyas, 10,480 Myanmar Muslims, 10,510 Rakhines, 3,780 Mons, 3,250 Kachins and others from other ethnicities from Myanmar.
• There are some 8,200 refugees and asylum-seekers from other countries, including some 4,480 Sri Lankans, 1,090 Somalis, 790 Iraqis and 440 Afghans, and others from other countries.
• Seventy-one per cent of refugees and asylum-seekers are men, while the remainder are women. There are some 20,000 children below the age of 18.
Art with heart
STARTING today, a specially designed Gin & Jacqie bag will be on sale in support of refugee children in the country under a fundraising initiative called Art With Heart: A Refugee Art Project.
For a limited time, proceeds from the sales will go towards refugee education programmes in Malaysia under the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). This project was initiated by Gin & Jacqie in collaboration with UNHCR in Malaysia.
The exclusive bag features a stunning artwork made by a refugee youth and carries with it the story of the artist. The artwork was selected from over 100 submissions from refugee youth.
UNHCR conducted an art competition among refugee youth aged 14-17, to select the winning design for the bag. Entries were received from refugees of various nationalities including those from Myanmar, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
The 20 shortlisted artworks are displayed at Bangsar Village One from today until July 1. The bags are sold during the exhibition period and are available online at www.ginjacqie.com, and at selected bookstores.

Read more: SHOWBIZ

Millions to mark World Refugee Day as displacement crises persist

Making a Difference, 13 June 2012

© UNHCR/S.Rich

Thinking of You: Millions will be thinking of the displaced, like this boy in Pakistan, on World Refugee Day.

GENEVA, June 13 (UNHCR) – In the past 18 months, the UNHCR has faced one of the busiest periods of its history, with crisis after crisis keeping the agency at full stretch, but over the next week staff across the globe will take time to commemorate World Refugee Day and the millions they help.

The focus for UNHCR this year will be in Brazil, where High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres will be spending World Refugee Day (June 20) in Rio de Janeiro at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development. He will be attending and addressing Rio+20 after visiting refugees in Ecuador.

Two days before World Refugee Day (WRD), UNHCR will be releasing worldwide its eagerly awaited Global Trends 2011 report, which updates the number of people of concern to the organization, including refugees, asylum-seekers, the stateless and internally displaced people.

UNHCR will start marking World Refugee Day by rolling out a striking new campaign, "Dilemmas," which is a development of the award-winning "1" campaign launched last year. "Dilemmas" depicts some of the tough choices facing refugees, helping the public to empathize with, and understand, their dilemma.

The new campaign is being supported in special TV spots by UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie and other celebrities, including UNHCR Goodwill Ambassadors Barbara Hendricks, Julien Clerc and Osvaldo Laport as well as Chinese actress Yao Chen, author Khaled Hosseini, Colombian rock star Juanes and Italian actress Fiorella Mannoia. UNHCR has also developed a free smartphone app, a role playing game called "My Life as a Refugee," to support the campaign on various digital platforms around the world.

© UNHCR

An image from UNHCR's new "Dilemmas" campaign.

 

Meanwhile, as has become custom, Rome's Colosseum will once again be illuminated in UN blue, one of many monuments around the world to be spotlit to mark the occasion, including Sweden's national indoor arena, the Ericsson Globe, which is the world's largest hemispherical building, and the Pristina National Library in Kosovo.

UNHCR staff have been planning for months for WRD and have prepared a wide range of activities, including light shows, film screenings, lectures, panel discussions, food bazaars, fashion shows, cultural performances, concerts and sports contests. There will also be competitions, tree planting, speeches, panel discussions, poetry recitals and photography exhibitions. UNHCR once again has an ambitious social media campaign to promote the day and spread awareness about the "Dilemmas" campaign.

The agency's partners, including governments, donors and non-governmental organizations, also be doing their part to help, and refugees around the world will participate while enjoying much needed recognition.

EUROPE

The United Kingdom will again be marking a Refugee Week, with hundreds of events planned around the country. Highlights include a "Celebrating Sanctuary" festival starting June 17 on London's South Bank and the screening on June 22 of the film classic, "Casablanca," in the capital's iconic Victoria & Albert Museum, with free entrance and black & white dress code.

The museum's tea room will be recreated as Rick's Café, where British-born Palestinian jazz singer Reem Kelani will perform songs and work by Sayyid Darwish. A more modest RefuTea will be held in the town of Ipswich on June 19, with free drinks and cakes. UNHCR will also be running a poster campaign on the London Underground system highlighting the contributions of refugees towards the Olympic Games, which begin in the city on July 27.

In Ireland, more than 130 libraries across the country as well as branches of Hughes and Hughes Booksellers in and around Dublin will have displays of refugee-related books for adults and children around World Refugee Day. UNHCR bookmarks with recommended reads will be handed out.

In France, UNHCR is again sponsoring a World Refugee Day essay competition run by "Le Monde" for journalism students. The winning article, which must be on the subject of refugees, will run in the daily's June 20 edition. Le Monde's sister publication, the monthly "Le Monde diplomatique," has published a four-page supplement on UNHCR in its June edition.

In the Belgian capital, Brussels, UNHCR will organize an explosive event on June 19 in the city's Place du Luxembourg. Using projectors and soundscape, actors and stunt experts will stage an attack on the historic old entrance to the Brussels-Luxemburg railway station, which will appear to crumble as people flee. The aim is to spread awareness about the "Dilemmas" campaign and to show the burghers of Brussels the kind of situations refugees face.

© UNHCR/S.Hopper

 

Time for a Party: Staff dance in UNHCR headquarters on World Refugee Day.

On the Iberian Peninsula, World Refugee Day will be taken right into the Portuguese Parliament, with legislators helping to salute refugees at a national level. There will be testimonies from refugees, a photo exhibition and a concert, with free entry to the June 20 event. The parliament building will be decorated with materials from "Dilemmas" and other UNHCR campaigns.

A wide range of activities are planned for Hungary, including a festival of films on migration and refugees on June 19-20 in Budapest. Also on June 20, refugees in Budapest and Debrecen will hand out 10,000 copies of a free magazine on refugee issues, which was written by local journalists and funded by the European Union.

In neighbouring Bulgaria, on Sunday, a multicultural event with a concert and activities for children will take place in front of the National Theatre in Sofia. UNHCR will have a stall alongside tents showcasing culture and cuisine from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, and organizations that support refugees in Bulgaria.

In Slovakia, on June 20, refugees staying at the Emergency Transit Centre in Hummene (while they await resettlement) will join asylum-seekers and others of concern on a sightseeing tour of the historical city of Košice. This will be followed by a football tournament and a cultural event.

ASIA-PACIFIC

UNHCR's World Refugee Day activities in the Antipodes include an art contest for children in Australia and New Zealand on the theme of "1 refugee without hope is too many." The art will be exhibited at a breakfast on June 20 in Canberra, where guests will include refugees and Immigration Minister Chris Bowen. Winning entries will be featured in a 2013 calendar by UNHCR.

And in Sydney, Australia for UNHCR will be hosting the annual WRD breakfast on June 20. Funds raised will support community projects in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.

UNHCR's office in Papua New Guinea will hold its main event on the weekend before WRD, which will include an arts and crafts market, with proceeds going to support refugee causes. Popular local artist Jeffry Feeger will complete a life painting for auction, bamboo flute player Pius Wasi will make a special recording with PNG and West Papuan musicians while West Papuan refugee troupes, Rainbow and Hohola, will perform traditional dances.

Meanwhile, on June 20, UNHCR will launch an advertising campaign featuring photos of Malaysian celebrities calling on the public to help refugees by donating money, volunteering their time or speaking to others. The featured celebrities are Miss Universe Malaysia Deborah Henry, TV hosts Daphne Iking and Aishah Sinclair and recording artists Reshmonu and Reza Salleh.

On June 24, UNHCR will host more than 500 refugees at an event in Kuala Lumpur themed, "Loud and Proud." The guests will fete the accomplishments of refugees in helping their communities survive in Malaysia.

In Afghanistan, the national post office will issue a stamp marking the 10th anniversary of UNHCR's voluntary repatríation programme, which has seen more than 4.6 million people return home with the agency's help.

MIDDLE EAST

The UNHCR office in the Lebanon will be organizing sports and film events to mark WRD this year. Running from June 25-29 at Beirut's Cinema Sofil, the film festival will include features and documentaries from around the world on refugee-related issues. A children-oriented World Refugee Day Olympics will be held on June 24 at the Antoniye School in Baabda, western Lebanon. The country's most popular restaurant chain, Roadster Diner, will feature images from UNHCR's "Dilemmas" campaign on its food trays.

AFRICA

In an event co-organized by UNHCR, The Soweto Gospel Choir will perform for free on World Refugee Day at the Orlando East Community Hall in the Johannesburg district from which the Grammy Award winners take their name. Several other WRD events in South Africa will promote tolerance of refugees in the country. Art exhibits, featuring work by refugees, will be held at the Holocaust Museum in Cape Town and the Alliance Française in Durban.

© UNHCR/S.Lubuku

UNHCR will again be helping organize the annual 10-kilometre walk in Kinshasa.

The UN refugee agency and the Walkers Club of Kinshasa will stage an annual 10-kilometre walk through the hot streets of the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo this Sunday. About 700 people are expected to turn up for an event that attracts refugees, UNHCR staff, diplomats, government officials, aid workers and more.

In North Africa, the UNHCR office in Tunisia and the Ministry of Women will on June 17 co-organize a day of recreational events for refugee children and their families in central Tunis. Three days later, UNHCR will both celebrate World Refugee Day and inaugurate its new Tunis office. In the Choucha camp in southern Tunisia, a special meal will be offered to the refugees on World Refugee Day and ice-cream vans will be parked around the camp, handing out 3,000 free ice creams in cones. On June 24, Palestinian singer Reem al Banna, who is known for her modern interpretations of traditional Palestinian songs and poetry, will perform at Choucha.

AMERICAS

As always, UNHCR will be busy with WRD events in the United States capital, Washington, DC, starting with the launch on June 18 at The Kennedy Centre of a multimedia art exhibit about Dadaab in Kenya. "Dadaab Stories" charts daily life for almost 500,000 Somalis in the world's largest refugee complex. Bringing together video, photography, poetry and music, "Dadaab Stories" is a living, curated collection of personal stories.

On World Refugee Day itself, acclaimed Afghan-born author, Khaled Hosseini, will introduce "No Place Called Home," written and performed by Kim Schultz. The play tells the story of an American woman who accidentally falls in love with an Iraqi man while interviewing refugees. Hosseini, a UNHCR supporter and former refugee, will also speak at a naturalization ceremony for 20 refugees next Thursday at the US State Department.

UNHCR will also be promoting WRD in New York, holding an evening event at the UN Secretariat Building overlooking the East River. This gathering will also launch a photo and text exhibit on the recently published, "The State of the World's Refugees," a flagship UNHCR publication.

In Costa Rica, UNHCR and youth organization Chepecletas will organize a night tour – or "nocturbano" – on June 20 in San José, highlighting the reality refugees face. As part of this experience, the Youth Network without Borders, including refugees, will stage a drama on violence, flight and integration. The tour will end with a performance by a Colombian refugee band.

In the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, UNHCR will stage a concert by acclaimed local flautist, Huascar Barradas, at the Fundación Corp Banca.

Aside from hosting a visit by the High Commissioner, Latin America's largest refugee host nation, Ecuador, will be showing its empathy and support for the displaced in some imaginative ways. Thousands of citizens are being encouraged to get on their bikes at Quito's Carolina Park to show their support "for an Ecuador that is socially committed, inclusive and non-discriminatory." There will also be a food, music and handicrafts fair and Guterres will join the fun.

Source : UNHCR GENEVA

New Home, New Life for Refugees

Press Statement 16 December 2012 : New Home, New Life for Refugees

 ,,

World Refugee Day will be commemorated on 20 June 2012 with the theme ‘New Home, New Life for Refugees’. To remember the day and improve engagement between refugee communities and Malaysian public, Amnesty International Malaysia together with NGOs will be organising a Refugee Carnival on 16 June 2012, 10am-3pm, at Dewan Dominic, Jalan Robertson, Off Jalan Pudu, KL.

The latest statistics from UNHCR states that there are 216,900 refugees in Malaysia. However despite repeated appeals from Malaysian NGOs and world communities, and that Malaysia is a member of UN Human Rights Council, we are yet to sign the 1951 Refugee Convention and offer protection or recognition to refugees.

Most refugees are unable to return to their country of origin due to a fear of being persecuted for their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group. They are vulnerable, fearful of the future and need assistance. The current world economic and political situation has ensures that there will be no ending to the refugee situation. Malaysia and Malaysians are in the position to assist and take the lead in this region to stop further persecution.

For a start we could offer our hand in friendship and get to know them better. Refugees are of diverse groups, have different life experiences and expertise, and are looking for a place called home. Come and get to know them by attending our Refugee Carnival and be mesmerized by their handicraft and food. A Home is where the Heart is so lets us share their journey in looking for a Home. See you there!


 Nora Murat
 Executive Director

Malaysian Police are providing proofs that US allegations of Human Rights abuses on refugees are correct

THEY SEEMS TO BE WORSE THAN MYANMAR POLICE as Myanmar police at least allow to celebrate at the NLD HQ. Here prtesting infront of US embassy against Israel and supporting Palestines only is allowed. At least Myanmar opposition is not killing any one like those terrorists.

One day after Malaysia was named the world’s worst place for refugees, the police have tonight ensured that the country will continue to remain in the rogues’ gallery.

A team of 50 police officers broke up a gathering in Petaling Jaya to celebrate Burma’s Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday at about 9pm and detained 16 people.

Those arrested are believed to be refugees from Burma who were at the birthday celebration to express their concern for their country’s democracy icon.

The Burmese military regime has kept Suu Kyi in detention for 13 of the past 19 years, and she is now on trial at Rangoon’s notorious Insein Prison over a bizarre incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home.

According to human rights group Suaram, the 16 were arrested even before the event kicked off.

“All those arrested now are detained in the Petaling Jaya district police station and denied access to lawyers. They might be moved to immigration,” said Suaram coordinator Temme Lee.

The 16 were taken to the Petaling Jaya police station where a crowd had gathered outside to press for their release.

The aborted celebration – which was to be held in an open area near Amcorp Mall in Taman Jaya – was jointly organised by Pakatan Rakyat Selangor and Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ).

Respect rights of refugees

Lee also urged the government to recognise the refugee status of those arrested.

There are fears that some of them could be sent to the immigration detention camp.

Malaysia is not a signatory of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and does not officially recognise those given refugee status by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

It is learnt that three of 16 had been released about 90 minutes after their arrest. Apparently the trio had documents to prove that they were refugees while the rest were still being detained at the police station.

'Real People, Real Needs': World Refugee Day 2009

JUNE 20 — My first encounter with a refugee who sought safety in Malaysia occurred quite unexpectedly. I was 19 years old in my first week of university in the United Kingdom. An Asian-looking girl in my halls of residence sought me out, wanted to meet a ‘Malaysian’. I was curious.

In her strong American accent, she started telling me an extraordinary story. She told me of how she fled Vietnam with her family on a crowded, rickety boat. She was four years old.

She remembered being afraid of pirates and people hiding gold in their teeth. She remembered being worried that their boat would sink or that they would run out of food, and how relieved everybody was when they finally landed.

She had vague memories of growing up in a camp in Malaysia, of waiting for resettlement. Her family was eventually accepted into the United States, and they moved there with hardly anything, entering yet another alien environment.

They struggled to fit into ‘American culture’, but she was young and hardworking and coped better than her parents. She got top marks at school and came to the UK for her junior year abroad. Her name was Elizabeth; she was my age.

I forgot about these conversations for almost a decade as I got into my studies and started working. I only thought about ‘refugees’ again when I met Acehnese in Kuala Lumpur in 2003.

The way they struggled to survive, their physical and mental trauma, their deep concerns about getting arrested and deported, prompted me to start reading up on Malaysia’s history with refugees.

Over the past centuries many groups have sought asylum in Malaysia. The Acehnese, for example, have had a long history of coming to the peninsula when conflict escalates in their province in Sumatra. Some who fled Dutch domination were granted citizenship with the forming of Malaya. Others were given permanent resident status in the 1980s when the Malaysian government welcomed the peoples of Indonesia to work and reside in Malaysia.

The most iconic groups of refugees in recent memory are, of course, the Indochinese refugees.

Between 1975 and 1995, close to two million people left Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam overland and on boats, seeking refuge in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Between 1975 and 1992, Malaysia offered permanent residence to an estimated 10,000 Cambodian Muslims, some resettled from Thailand.

However, for a time, Malaysia had a policy of pushing Vietnamese boats back out to sea, unless the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) intervened in time.

Through its participation in the intergovernmental Comprehensive Plan of Action established in 1989, Malaysia eventually hosted around 250,000 Vietnamese refugees in temporary camps until they were processed for resettlement or repatriated safely back to Vietnam.

Malaysia has also offered asylum to different groups of Muslim refugees, albeit sporadically.

In 1994, in a public demonstration of Islamic solidarity and rising Asian economic strength during a global crisis, Malaysia offered asylum to 350 Bosnian Muslims fleeing the collapse of Yugoslavia.

In the 1970s, Malaysia offered refuge to 120,000 Muslim refugees from the southern Philippines who came to Sabah. Of this number, an estimated 61,000 remain on renewable IMM13 work permits.

After the devastating Asian Tsunami in December 2004, Malaysia issued an estimated 32-35,000 IMM13 work permits to Acehnese refugees. Large numbers of these had arrived from 2003 onwards to escape intensive military operations, which ended with the signing of the Helsinki Peace Agreement in August 2005.

However, such humanitarian gestures have been exceptions rather than the rule. The dominant trend in Malaysia has been the treatment of asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons as ‘illegal immigrants’.

Having fled persecution and conflict, these groups often find themselves in desperate circumstances in Malaysia, hunted down through immigration operations, detained for long periods in detention centres, whipped as criminals, and deported to border zones where they become easy prey for human traffickers.

Most refugees live from day to day in constant fear and abject poverty. Desperate for long-term solutions, some have boarded boats again, traveling onwards to nearby countries like Japan and Australia.

Malaysian apologists for such harsh treatment have claimed, erroneously, that Malaysia has no responsibilities towards asylum seekers and refugees because it is neither party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees nor its 1967 Protocol.

This is an oft repeated, tired refrain – a misunderstanding that legitimizes the abdication of our responsibilities as a member of the United Nations and the Human Rights Council.

Malaysia has ratified two international human rights treaties – the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The two international committees overseeing the implementation of these treaties have urged the Malaysian government to take concrete measures to protect refugees. Instead of doing so, Malaysian government officials waver between blaming the UNHCR for ‘creating’ refugees and for not resettling them as quickly as they should.

It is vital that the Malaysian government works with the international community to find durable solutions for asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons in the region. This isn’t something that Malaysia has to bear alone, but we must acknowledge that we have a role to play.

We need domestic laws and administrative systems that identify and protect vulnerable groups in accordance with international standards and obligations. We must design these systems well, so that are not easily manipulated and corrupted by those who take advantage of weaker populations.

In the meantime, the Malaysian government can immediately invoke section 55 of the Immigration Act in order to exempt asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons from punishment for immigration offences.

As long as nations are at war, as long as political instability, persecution and conflict exist, there will always be asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons. Some of them will come to Malaysia; this is a fact of life.

Rather than pretending they do not exist, or blaming them for seeking our help, we need to recognize our international obligations to protect and assist these vulnerable groups.

When I met Elizabeth in 1994, I didn’t know anything about refugees. I realize now how great a danger she faced as a four-year old child. She could easily have perished on the waves of the South China Sea. In taking her in, Malaysia literally saved her life.

Malaysia is a strong state – well resourced and influential regionally and internationally. It is a key member of the Association of South East Asian Nations and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Malaysia can play a lead role in protecting vulnerable people.

If our generation is remembered for anything, let us be remembered for this.

Malaysia Sells Deportees-World Refugee Report

Summary of World Refugee Survey Report

Malaysian immigration officials continued to sell deportees to gangs of traffickers operating along the Thailand-Malaysia border. The gangs paid from $250 to $500 per deportee. The traffickers demanded fees of 1,400 to 3,000 ringgit (about $400 to $860) to smuggle the deportees back into Malaysia. They typically sold those who could not pay (perhaps 20 percent), the men onto fishing boats, the women into brothels, and the children to gangs that exploit child beggars.

Malaysia made no changes to its laws or regulations dealing with refugees and asylum seekers during 2008, meaning that arbitrary arrest, detention, and deportation of refugees continued.

During the year, Malaysia deported at least 1,000 refugees and asylum seekers to Thailand, which has in the past returned deportees to Myanmar. It alleged these deportations were voluntary, but because the only alternative was continued detention in poor conditions, this is questionable.

At year’s end, Malaysia was holding roughly 400 asylum seekers registered with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), mostly Myanmarese, whom it accused of illegal stay or illegal entry in its detention facilities.

Conditions in detention centers remained abysmal, with overcrowding, poor sanitation, inadequate health care, and abuse all common. The Government did not allow the International Committee of the Red Cross access to the detention centers, but did allow UNHCR limited access to registered refugees and asylum seekers and gave access to staff the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM), the Government’s official human rights body, on a case-by-case basis. In December, SUHAKAM announced that 1,535 detainees had died in prisons, rehabilitation centers, and immigration detention between 2003 and 2007. Lack of medical attention was a major cause of death, and SUHAKAM proposed assigning a doctor and medical assistant to each detention center, providing facilities to transfer detainees to hospitals in emergencies, and improve medical monitoring of jails in police stations. During the year, the Government allowed local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to provide some health care to detainees. Officials caned at least 6 refugees (including a minor) for immigration violations during the year, down from 32 in 2007.

During the year, UNHCR registered 17,000 new asylum seekers and made refugee status determinations in 11,000 cases.

During the year, 14 refugees from southern Thailand returned voluntarily, with 106 of the group who fled to Malaysia in 2005 remaining in the Ajil detention center.

In January, officials arrested 10 Myanmarese for forging Thai and Myanmarese passports. They seized fake UNHCR cards, 150 fake passports, 19 fake foreign worker IDs, and 20,000 ringgit (about $5,750). Officials believed they sold passports for $1,000 to $2,000. Officials seized 46 passports from another forgery ring later in the month.

In March, the Prisons Department handed over 11 immigration centers to the Immigration Department. People’s Volunteer Corps (RELA) with its 480,000 volunteers became in charge of management of these centers.

Abuses by RELA continued during the year, with reports of rape, beatings, extortion, theft, and destroying UNHCR documents. RELA raided and burned to the ground the camp of 75 Chin refugees from Myanmar in January. They detained 23 of the refugees, and took everything of value in the camp, including cell phones, crafts made for sale, and money.

RELA arrested 200 Rohingya refugees (50 of them children) in a March raid that netted 500 undocumented immigrants.

On April 21, detainees at Lenggeng Immigration Detention Centre rioted, during which an administration building caught fire. Although Malaysian media reported the riot began when 60 Myanmarese detainees were rejected for resettlement to third countries, the incident actually began on April 20 when immigration officers beat nine detainees (six Myanmarese, two Indonesians, and one Pakistani) while interrogating them about a cigarette butt and tobacco found in the detention center. Immigration officers eventually returned the Myanmarese to their cells after they denied smoking, but continued to beat the other three detainees. When the Pakistani crawled out of the room where he was beaten foaming at the mouth, other detainees began to shout and throw objects from their cells in protest. Immigration officers took the Pakistani and two Indonesians away, and a senior RELA official arrived by 10 p.m. to urge the detainees to settle down. The next morning, many of the detainees refused breakfast and announced they were on a hunger strike. By noon, RELA and immigration officers usually on duty had withdrawn from the cellblocks, and some detainees broke out of one block and opened the others. Some detainees stayed in their cellblocks, but others rushed out and a fire soon broke out in an administrative office. Media reports said 100 police, 100 RELA members, and 40 immigration officers restored order.

RELA officials arrested 14 detainees (six Indonesians, three Myanmarese refugees registered with UNHCR, three Myanmarese asylum seekers, one Cambodian, and one documented Vietnamese migrant worker) for possession of dangerous weapons and creating mischief by fire or explosives. Two of the arrested reported being beaten and burned with cigarettes as they were driven away from the detention center. Authorities also transferred all Myanmarese detainees to other facilities, beating them on the way according to detainees. In the wake of the incident, Malaysia announced it would tighten border security to reduce crowding in detention centers.

In April, three Myanmarese refugees received 36-year jail sentences for their 2004 attempt to kill Myanmar’s ambassador to Malaysia and burn down its embassy. They had represented themselves after dismissing lawyers provided by the Legal Aid Bureau. In a separate case, a Myanmarese refugee plead guilty to culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the 2006 killling of a 17-year-old refugee in a detention center.

Unknown assailants stabbed and set fire to a Myanmarese refugee in April, killing him.

In May, RELA members arrested a foreign diplomat and held her for two hours, despite her presenting her diplomatic ID. They released her only upon the intervention of her embassy.

Malaysia returned two Chinese Muslims to China at the request of the Chinese government in June.

In June, the Government announced a crackdown on illegal immigrants in the Sabah state, home to more than 70,000 Filipino refugees. The crackdown aimed to deport some 200,000 irregular migrants, who were mainly Filipinos..

As of August, about 35,000 had been deported. By the end of the year, thousands more were deported.

Police arrested four Myanmarese for the murder of a Myanmarese refugee woman in July.

In August, the Government announced that the remaining 25,000 Acehnese holding IMM13 work permits would have to leave the country by January 2009 or be deported.

In August, RELA arrested over 11,000 people, only 500 of whom did not have legal immigration status.

In September, a court ordered a RELA member to pay 100,000 ringgit (about $28,800) to a woman whom he photographed while she was forced to relieve herself in the back of a truck taking her to a detention center.

In October, the Philippines announced that many deported Filipinos had been beaten by Malaysian police and detained in inhumane conditions.

Around 300 Rohingya refugees lost their jobs as car washers in October, after immigration officials threatened their employers with 5,000 ringgit (about $1,440) fines.

In November, Malaysia’s high court overturned migrant rights activist Irene Fernandez’s 2003 conviction for publishing allegedly false information. She had received a 12-month jail sentence for reporting on poor conditions in detention centers in 1995.

Law and Policy

Refoulement/Physical Protection

The Government has no procedure for granting asylum or registering refugees. UNHCR handles all refugee status determinations in Malaysia and issues plastic, tamperproof cards to those it recognizes as refugees. UNHCR performs individual status determinations for all asylum seekers under its mandate. . Malaysia is not party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, but is party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which obligates it to give protection and assistance to children seeking refugee status and to cooperate with UN assistance to refugee children.

As UNHCR has no presence at the border, most asylum seekers have to travel to Kuala Lumpur for determinations. UNHCR conducts mobile registration exercises in areas with high concentrations of refugees, but many asylum seekers remain unregistered.

The Government continues to permit refugees from the Philippines’ Moro insurgency of the 1970s to remain in Sabah State. The Government does not grant them citizenship, however, putting their children at risk of statelessness.

Detention/Access to Courts

In November 2007, the Government announced it was transferring control of the immigration detention centers back to the Immigration Department and that RELA members would be assisting with security in them until it could train full-time staff, perhaps for as long as two years.

UNHCR is usually able to access detention centers, and make several visits during the year. The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, a governmental body, is able to visit detention centers but needs Government approval. The Government does not generally permit the International Committee of the Red Cross, nongovernmental organizations, or the media to visit prisons or monitor conditions. Refugees can challenge their detention if they have legal representation. UNHCR provides those held on immigration violations with volunteer lawyers and often secure their release. Authorities do not permit detainees to make phone calls upon arrest, so they generally have to bribe a police officer to be able to inform anyone of their arrest.

Refugees with UNHCR cards are usually safe from arrest by regular police, although RELA and Immigration officials still detain them. Police still arrests asylum seekers occasionally, as they do not always recognize the letters UNHCR issues asylum seekers. Refugees are subject to prosecution under the 1959 Immigration Act, which make no distinction between refugees and illegal immigrants. Amendments to the Immigration Act in 2002 provides for up to five years’ imprisonment, along with whipping up to six strokes, and fines of 10,000 ringgit (about $3,020) for violations.

The Federal Constitution extends its protections for individual liberty to all persons, but creates an exception whereby the 24 hours allowed authorities to bring a detainee before a magistrate become two weeks in the case of an alien detained under the immigration laws.

Freedom of Movement and Residence

There are no camps or segregated settlements in Malaysia, but refugees’ and asylum seekers’ freedom of movement depends on the acceptance of their documents by Malaysian authorities. Those with UNHCR refugee cards enjoy some freedom of movement and residence.

The Immigration Act prohibits renting housing to illegal migrants. The law generally confines Filipino Muslim refugees to the designated area of Sabah.

In March, the home minister called for the establishment of closed camps for refugees and for UNHCR to administer them.

Refugees do not receive international travel documents except for resettlement.

Right to Earn a Livelihood

Refugees and asylum seekers hold no official legal status and are not permitted to work legally. In 2005, the Government issued between 32,000 and 35,000 IMM13 work permits to Acehnese migrants and refugees from Indonesia. The permits cost between 162 and 180 ringgit (about $47 and $52), are valid for two years, and are renewable. They do not permit the refugees to engage in trade but do allow them to work, attend school, and live in the country legally. The permits do not tie their bearers to single employers. In 2006, the Government began to issue IMM13 permits to Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, but stopped amid accusations of bribery and corruption in the issuing process. That leaves some 5,000 Rohingyas holding receipts proving they paid for IMM13 permits without the permits themselves.

The Immigration Act penalizes employers of illegal immigrants with fines of about 10,000 to 50,000 ringgit (about $3,020 to $15,100) or, if they employ more than five, imprisonment from six months to five years and up to six cane strokes.

Foreign workers with legal permits can join unions, but the permits of most foreign workers tie them to single employers, although this is not the case with the IMM13 permits given to Acehnese or Filipino refugees. Workers without legal status generally cannot use the national system of labor adjudication. If employers dismiss foreign workers for any reason, they lose their permits, their legal right to remain in Malaysia, and their right to pursue legal action against abusive employers—despite court requests that the Immigration Department grant them visas to do so.

Malaysia also does not allow refugees to hold title to or transfer business premises, farmland, homes, or other capital assets. The Federal Constitution offers most of its protections from arbitrary deprivation of property to all persons, but reserves protection against discrimination based on religion, race, descent, or place of birth in work, trade, professional, or property matters and the right to form associations to citizens.

Public Relief and Education

Despite its obligations under the CRC, Malaysia does not provide primary education or free health services to most refugee children or asylum seekers—not even those born in Malaysia. Although the IMM13 permits grant parents the right to send their children to public schools, the Government allows them to attend only private schools.

Refugees with UNHCR documents receive medical services at half the standard price for foreigners. Refugees and asylum seekers with HIV/AIDS receive access to free treatment from the public health service. Other than this, authorities provide no medical care, public relief, rationing, or assistance, but do permit independent humanitarian agencies to assist refugees.

Malaysia did not include refugees or asylum seekers in the Ninth Malaysia Plan, the country’s primary economic planning document, but it did include them in its National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS 2007-2010.