Malaysia now a better place for refugees

Free Malaysia Today
__________________________________________________

Refugees International says there were no deportation attempts last year and there was more respect for UNHCR identity cards.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has made some improvements in its treatment of refugees, according to a report by the Washington based Refugees International (RI).

The report, which has a specific focus on Burmese refugees, said Malaysian authorities in the past year made no attempt to deport refugees and showed that they had increased their respect for identity cards issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

It noted that since 2009, the number of registered refugees in Malaysia had increased from 45,000 to more than 80,000.

About 90% of them are from Burma, where ethnic minorities like the Chin, Rohingya and Karen are said to be subject to systematic human abuses.

“There have been no reported attempts to deport Burmese refugees to the border with Thailand and a decrease in immigration raids and arrests of registered refugees,” RI said.

However, it added that these improvement had yet to be codified into policies and called on the government to “build on the progress” by setting up a system of residence and work permits, a suggestion which has been frequently repeated by local refugee advocacy groups.

The four-page report, released early this week, is entitled “Malaysia: Invest in Solutions for Refugees”. It said the refugees, as a ready work force, could replace some of the two million migrant workers in the country.
At present, refugees who hold the UNHCR card are permitted to reside temporarily in Malaysia but are not allowed to work.

The report also urged the government to allow refugees access to public schools and health facitilies and support projects that address the needs of women refugees.

Malaysia has been notorious for its treatment of refugees. It has been reported, for example, that the Rela volunteer corps have mistaken refugees as illegal immigrants and imprisoned them even though they held UNHCR cards. Some reports have spoken of Rela officials tearing up the cards.

Malaysia has not signed the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which sets out a framework for the protection of refugees.

Thailand to Myanmar Refugees: Drop Dead

Council on Foreign Relations

According to reports by AFP and other news agencies, Thailand’s National Security Council head, Tawin Pleansri, told reporters after a meeting of the council that Thailand wants to close the refugee camps for over 100,000 Burmese refugees, who have fled the country over the past twenty years. Most of the Burmese refugees live in camps on the western Thailand-Burma border; their housing is basic, but it is better than living in eastern and northeastern Burma, where they are prey to regular campaigns of attacks and even mass rape by the Burmese military, and retribution attacks by armed ethnic militia groups. In one comprehensive report, a group focusing on Chin State in Burma documented the use of rape as a weapon of war by the Burmese military.

Thailand has never really wanted to house the Burmese refugees, but over successive administrations Bangkok has tolerated the refugee presence. Undocumented Burmese also frequently enter Thailand itself, providing a source of cheap and easily exploitable labor for many Thai companies. Now, however, Bangkok appears willing to use the fiction that Burma had a real election last fall to repatriate these refugees, most of whom will return against their will. Though the election last year may improve the quality of governance in Burma marginally, it was hardly a free or fair poll, or suggestive of the kind of dramatic change on human rights that would make it safe to return refugees.

There are other reasons for Thailand’s suddenly harder line. Leading Thai company Ital-Thai is in the process of making the largest-ever Thai investment in Myanmar, at over $13 billion. And overall, the government of PM Abhisit has tried to foster rapprochment with its neighbor. Too bad that over 100,000 refugees are going to be treated as a pawn in this relationship.

Dozens of illegals escape Malaysian detention camp

(AFP)

LENGGENG, Negeri Sembilan — Malaysian authorities launched a large scale manhunt on Tuesday for dozens of illegal immigrants who fled a detention camp after burning down an accommodation block.

District police chief Saiful Azly told AFP a group of 200 policemen, immigration officials and paramilitary volunteers were combing central Negeri Sembilan state following the breakout from the Lenggeng immigration depot.

"Most of the detainees who escaped are from Myanmar, others include Iranians and one detainee from Nigeria," he said.

"Twenty-five of them have been re-arrested and have been brought back to the detention camp with a large scale manhunt under way to recapture the rest," Saiful added.

Earlier, Rusli Mokhtar, deputy commandant of the Lenggeng immigration depot, just south of Kuala Lumpur, said the break-out happened late Monday with 109 illegal migrants fleeing the detention centre.

Police have set up road blocks and are checking vehicles following the incident while dozens of paramilitary volunteers armed with batons comb the nearby palmoil estates on motorcycles to flush out the remaining 84 escapees.

The home ministry's top official in charge of detention centres, Mohamed Asri Yusof, said the breakout took place at about 9:45pm (1345 GMT) "when there was rioting and the detainees burnt down Block A".

He said the government has set up a committee to look into the incident.

Located 40 minutes from the town of Seremban, the detention camp is the size of six football fields and consists of four accommodation blocks and a watchtower encircled by a 20-foot (six-metre) zinc fence topped with concertina wire.

Home ministry officials admitted last August to poor standards at detention centres for illegal immigrants and trafficking victims, after a report labelled the facilities "ticking time bombs".

Officials had said Malaysia's 13 centres were insecure and that the detainee population of 7,000 -- of which more than half were "hardcore criminals" -- found it easy to escape.

In March last year 16 illegal immigrants, including 12 Afghans, escaped after cutting their way out of a detention centre at Malaysia's main international airport.

The home ministry's top civil servant, Mahmood Adam, has said it is developing a plan to tackle the situation.

He said anti-climbing fences and CCTV cameras would be installed at detention centres, and that a report would be put to cabinet soon on further upgrading and security measures required.

With one of Asia's largest populations of foreign labourers, Malaysia relies on its 1.8 million immigrants to clean homes, care for children and work in plantations and factories.

Immigration activists say Malaysia is often used as a staging post for trafficking gangs moving people from Afghanistan and Myanmar to Indonesia and Australia.