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A POWERFUL VOICE FOR LIFESAVING ACTION

FIELD REPORT

www.reugeesinternational.org

GRANT REFUGEES RESIDENCE AND WORK

PERMITS

Malaysia is host to over two million migrant workers, out o

a total population o 28 million. The number o registered

reugees in the country is over 80,000 and the Government

has not yet set up a legal or administrative ramework or

the reugees to distinguish them rom other migrants in

the country. They do not recognize the act that unlike other

migrants, these reugees are not able to return to their

countries o origin. Over ninety percent o the reugees in

Malaysia come rom Burma where ethnic minorities, such

as the Chin, Rohingya and Karen, are subject to systematic

human rights abuses.

Although reugees are not legally permitted to work in

Malaysia, in practice they are doing unskilled, low-paid jobs

that Malaysian citizens do not want to do. Reugees

International (RI) interviewed many Rohingya reugees, a

Muslim Burmese minority group which is also stateless,

who spoke o their rustrations at being unable to get better

jobs and earn more or their amilies. Employers are wor-

ried about hiring them because o their illegal status or em-

ployers exploit them because they know that they will not

April 19, 2011

Contacts:Lynn Yoshikawa & Melanie Te

MALAYSIA:INVEST IN SOLUTIONS FOR REFUGEES

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

The U.S., Australia and other key donor govern-ments should urge the Government of Malaysia:

to work with UNHCR to provide refugees with

the legal right to residence and employment in

Malaysia,

to allow refugee and asylum-seeker children

access to government schools,

to allow refugees and asylum-seekers to pay the

same fees as citizens for health care, and

to improve the conditions in immigration

detention centers and allow UNHCR and non-

governmental organizations (NGOs) full access todetainees.

UNHCR headquarters should allocate increasedfunding to its Malaysia operation.

The U.S. and other key donor governments shouldincrease funding to UNHCR and to local NGOs to

enable them to increase support for refugees, in-

cluding legal assistance, medical care and gender-

based violence programs.

Malaysia has taken signifcant steps orward in improving reugee rights. In the past year,

there have been no reported attempts to deport Burmese reugees to the border with Thailand

and a decrease in immigration raids and arrests o registered reugees. But these advances

have not yet been codifed into written government policy, leaving reugees considered

illegal migrants and subject to arrest and detention. The Government o Malaysia should

build on this progress by setting up a system o residence and work permits or reugees.

The international community should mobilize additional unds or the UN Reugee Agency

(UNHCR) and non-governmental agencies to leverage this opportunity to improve reugee rights.


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have recourse to justice. Their illegal status orces them

into taking irregular day laboring jobs, and does not permit

them to get insurance, so they cannot claim compensation

i they are injured at work.

Despite a signifcant reduction in immigration raids and

detention over the past year and an increase in respect by

police or UNHCR reugee cards, RI interviewed many

registered reugees who had still been stopped by policeand orced to pay bribes to avoid being arrested. As one

Rohingya man said: The only document we have is a

UNHCR reugee card, but it does not cover working here. I

have to support nine amily members, but I cant work

permanently in one place. Without documents we cant do

good jobs. A Rohingya woman told RI that UNHCR

oered her micro-credit to set up a small sewing business

but she turned the money down. She said: I we are not

legally allowed to move reely and to sell our products, how

can we repay a loan? We would have to risk being arrested

to pay it back. These types o dilemmas ace all reugees in

Malaysia currently.

It is in the interests o the Government o Malaysia to

implement a residence and work permit scheme or reu-

gees. Malaysian employers seek migrant workers rom

abroad, but there is already a source o workers rom the

reugee community in the country. Setting up residence

and work permit schemes that include a path to permanent

residence or reugees would solve many o Malaysias labor

needs and would allow or the government to beneft

economically rom taxation and money transer ees. The

current situation encourages corruption by ofcials andexploitation by employers, but a new system would reduce

people-trafcking and smuggling, enhance Malaysias

security, enable the government to know who is on its terri-

tory, and improve Malaysias image with the international

community.

There have been previous residence and work permit

schemes or specifc oreign groups in Malaysia, such as

Indonesians and Filipinos, and in 2006 there was an

attempt to set up such a system or Rohingya reugees. The

Government o Malaysia has recently commissioned a

study to consider setting up a residence and work permitscheme or Rohingya reugees, which should be established

promptly and extended beyond just the Rohingya reugee

community. The Government o Malaysia should seek the

technical assistance o UNHCR to avoid difculties that

have beset some previous attempts.

INCREASE UNHCR FUNDING TO INVEST IN

SOLUTIONS FOR REFUGEES

Over the past two years UNHCR has registered 35,000

more reugees in Malaysia, increasing the total number

rom 45,000 to over 80,000. Further, they have registered

more than 11,000 asylum-seekers. Yet, despite doubling

their benefciary caseload, UNHCR has had no increase in

unding. UNHCRs operating budget remains at US$7.5

million, despite its Global Needs Assessment showing a

requirement o US$16 million. At a time when the Malay-

sian government is progressive in its approach towards

reugees, the lack o adequate fnancial support to UNHCR

represents a serious missed opportunity. Investment at this

time is a cost-eective way o fnding actual solutions to

reugee protection problems.

Australian unding permitted a mobile registration

campaign or a large group o reugees in a relatively short

period. Those resources have now been exhausted.

UNHCR plans to conduct 18,000 registration interviewsor Burmese cases in 2011 but lacks unding or more. RI

met with reugees who had recently arrived in Malaysia, but

UNHCR could not interview and register them until 2012

due to the growing backlog. Only amily reunifcation and

particularly urgent cases are being ast-tracked or registra-

tion. Possession o UNHCR registration cards is the only

protection that reugees have against arrest and detention,

and lack o stafng to carry out aster registration inter-

views due to unding shortages needs to be addressed.

Asylum seekers told RI that it was very difcult to reach

UNHCR sta and that guards and junior sta at the gate othe UNHCR compound did not allow them in. One vulner-

able asylum seeker living outside o Kuala Lumpur told RI

that he had tried to set up an appointment three times but

had not succeeded. During RIs visit, it was clear that

UNHCR sta was overwhelmed with hundreds o visitors

on a daily basis and there was a need or well-trained sta

and translators.

UNHCR in Malaysia only has an ofce in Kuala Lumpur

and their sta rarely travel to visit reugees living outside

the capital. UNHCR proposed setting up an ofce inPenang, where many reugees and asylum seekers are

living, but they have not had the unding to achieve this.

UNHCR sta also intervene when reugees are detained or

immigration oenses. Given the governments recent

policy o recognizing UNHCR reugee cards and not

detaining registered reugees, UNHCR is usually success-

ul in obtaining reugees release. They also interview

asylum-seekers held in detention. But lack o stafng and


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the need to cover eleven immigration detention centers

around the country means that it usually takes around two

months beore they secure the reugees release. Increased

UNHCR stafng or a legal aid program in the detention

center would reduce the amount o suering by detainees

and their amilies, and also reduce overcrowding and

unnecessary costs to the Malaysian detention system.

Since reugees have not been permitted to access most gov-ernment services, UNHCR has had to provide assistance to

the most vulnerable. In the past ew years, they have

supported reugee community schools, assisted amilies

with chronic or serious medical needs, and helped

survivors o sexual and gender-based violence. Benefciary

numbers have now doubled, and this means that previously

inadequate unding now has to be stretched even urther.

Reugees in Malaysia do not live in camps, but instead in

urban and rural settings, which make it more challenging

or UNHCR to reach out to the most vulnerable. Nonethe-

less, UNHCR has increased its outreach through reugeecommunity committees to communicate with reugees.

This innovative practice could be replicated in other urban

reugee settings to advance UNHCRs work globally under

its new urban reugee policy. For example, in 2010 they set

up the Social Protection Fund (SPF), which provides small

grants or reugee community-led projects, such as skills

training, language classes and income-generation

projects. Unortunately, the lack o unding has meant that,

despite its many successes, the SPF has had to be cut in hal

in its second year. Projects like these empower reugee

communities and are much more cost-eective than thoserun through NGOs, yet unding cuts will reduce their

impact this year.

ALLOW EQUAL ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT

SCHOOLS AND HEALTH FACILITIES

Reugee children should be allowed to attend government

schools. Currently they are only allowed to attend reugee

community schools, which have a much poorer standard o

education and which do not equip them or successul

utures, whether in Malaysia or in another country. Many

Rohingya reugee children told RI that in their schools they

are only studying religion and English. There are some

NGO-run schools or reugee children that cover more

subjects, but these lack resources and qualifed teachers.

Many o the reugee community schools are a signifcant

distance rom where the reugees live, and this creates

problems with transport, particularly in a situation where

people are araid they could be stopped by the police. There

is a problem with retention o Rohingya children in the

reugee community schools. Many Rohingya amilies do

not allow their daughters to attend school ater they reach

puberty. Their ear or their daughters saety and reputa-

tion is exacerbated by the need to travel long distances.

Many boys have to drop out o school to make money,

particularly since children are less likely to be arrested than

their parents. UNHCR is hoping to launch a youth

education program, but unding is currently lacking.

Given the precarious legal and economic situation o reu-

gees in Malaysia, most cannot aord access to the medical

system. The government has provided reugees with

discounted ees or medical care recently, but oreigners,

including asylum seekers, still have to pay a much higher

rate in government acilities than Malaysians. The US

Bureau o Population Reugees and Migration (PRM) unds

an NGO-run clinic that assists reugees, including those

who are not yet registered, which is a vital service that needs

continued unding.

UNHCR used to ast-track cases o pregnant reugee

women to get them registered quickly, so that they would be

able to access medical care using the reugees discounted

rate. UNHCR has stopped this practice because their statis-

tics suggested that desperation to get registered quickly was

leading women to seek getting pregnant or this purpose.

This change in UNHCR policy has resulted in difculties

or some pregnant women to access medical care, which

again underscores the urgency or reugees to gain access

to Malaysian health acilities.

SUPPORT PROJECTS THAT ADDRESS REFUGEE

WOMENS NEEDS

Most reugee community organizations are male-dominat-

ed, making it difcult or reugee women to gain access to

emale translators and sta o NGOs or UNHCR. There is

a need to increase emale sta in these roles, and to ensure

that all sta are trained to be aware o sexual and gender-

based violence (SGBV). A reugee woman told RI that she

had only been able to seek help to escape serious violence

by her husband because a UNHCR ofcer was approach-

able and asked me the right question at the right time in the

right way. She urged UNHCR sta to fnd a way to ask

reugee women separately rom their husbands i there is

anything happening in their amily lie that is putting them

at risk.

UNHCR responds to cases o SGBV that come to its atten-

tion, but they are limited in their ability to conduct outreach

and need greater capacity or providing shelter and


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phone:[202] 8280110n

facsimile:[202] 8280819n

e-mail:[email protected]

www.reugeesinternational.orgn

2001 S Street, NWn

Suite 700n

Washington, DC 20009

community reporting mechanisms. PRM is unding a NGO

to provide a community outreach program or reugee

women on SGBV, a relatively new approach in urban

reugee settings, which needs to be developed urther. Reu-

gee women oten have limited reedom o movement, due

to ears o arrest, and many Rohingya women have to seek

their husbands permission to leave the home at all. Fur-

ther, they cannot access the police and legal assistance

because o their own illegal status in the country, makingcommunity outreach even more important. There is also a

need to involve men in SGBV programs and to seek out

community and religious leaders who would be willing to

raise awareness with men o the negative impacts o SGBV

on communities.

There is a common perception that the Rohingya commu-

nity in Malaysia is almost exclusively male. In act, the

demographics o the Rohingya community in Malaysia

have been changing, and there are increasing numbers o

Rohingya women arriving in Malaysia to join their

husbands or to be married. The Rohingya have tended to be

a very traditional Muslim community. RI interviewed many

Rohingya women, who said they wished to have access to

skills and language trainings with a view to take on income-

generating activities within the home. Some also said they

would like to participate in a Rohingya womens group, and

that they hoped that UNHCR could give the impetus or

such a group to start.

Many Burmese reugee women have suered sexual

violence in their country o origin as the Burmese govern-

ment has used this as a tactic against ethnic minoritycommunities. Reugees in Malaysia, both male and emale,

have also suered many other horrifc human rights

abuses, creating a need or mental health support. PRM is

unding an NGO to provide mental health services to reu-

gees, and this type o unding needs to continue.

UNHCR cannot cover all o the services that are needed by

the reugee community, and there is a need or more

unding or NGOs to carry out these types o essential

services or reugees, particularly or reugee women.

IMPROVE IMMIGRATION DETENTION

CONDITIONS

Reugees who had been held in both immigration detention

and in jail told RI that conditions in immigration detention

centers are signifcantly worse than conditions in jail.

Previously detained reugees told RI that ood and water are

inadequate and unhygienic in the centers. Last year eight

people died at KLIA center ater a bacterial outbreak due to

rats urine in the water supply. Former detainees told RI

that guards beat or kicked them. They also complained o

extreme heat during the day, cold at night without appropri-

ate clothing, and no mosquito netting. This resulted in

many sicknesses, as well as skin diseases such as scabies.

One ormer detainee told RI o a little girl dying in the room

she was held in due to the heat. Guards reportedly choose at

whim which detainees receive help when doctors are

visiting and oten, the sickest detainees are not broughtorward.

Conditions must be improved, and the practice o detaining

reugees or immigration oenses and o sentencing reu-

gees to caning must be stopped. Legal assistance and

representation or reugees would help reduce or avoid

imprisonment and caning o reugees and avoid deporta-

tion o trafcking victims.

Government recognition o UNHCR reugee cards is

improving, but there are still many reugees held in immi-

gration detention centers in Malaysia. Access by UNHCRand by NGOs to the immigration detention centers is

limited. NGOs are only permitted to visit two o the deten-

tion centers. I reugees have no amily or riends to inorm

UNHCR o their detention, they are unlikely to receive

support due to the limited access by UNHCR and NGOs.

One reugee committee reported that in some cases detain-

ees must pay a bribe or ofcials to notiy UNHCR o their

presence.

Malaysias image as a modern country is severely damaged

by the state o its immigration detention centers. Over-

crowding is the primary reason or the inhuman condi-

tions. Yet, this would be reduced i the government stopped

detaining reugees or immigration oenses.

Melanie Teff and Lynn Yoshikawa assessed the plight of

Burmese refugees in Malaysia in March 2011.

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