Stop Looking At Refugees As Criminals, U.N. Urges Malaysians

The United Nations said Thursday it has registered 43,000 refugees in Malaysia, mostly from Myanmar, and called on Malaysians to stop thinking of them as migrants and criminals.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia said 27,000 refugees have come from military-ruled Myanmar, including 12,000 who are ethnic Rohingya and 15,000 who are either ethnic Chins or Muslims.

The next largest block are 12,000 refugees from Aceh in Indonesia, but many are set to return home following a peace deal between the government and rebels there.

Women form a quarter of the 43,000 registered with the U.N. refugee agency, the agency said, adding it would attempt to "increase assistance" to refugees by giving them formal education and possibly employment.

The Malaysian government did not immediately respond to the report, but its Home Affairs Ministry has said the government does not recognize the UNHCR's powers and that the refugee agency was making it difficult for officials to crack down on illegal immigrants.

"One of the misconceptions about refugees is that they are migrants," Malaysia's UNHCR office head Volker Turk said in a statement. "Refugees want to contribute to their host country until they can return home. However, this is not always possible due to the situation back home." Refugees here are "frequently viewed with distrust and regarded as 'criminals,'" he added.

Malaysia has had a long history of distrust toward foreign migrants or refugees — mostly from neighboring countries — who flock here to escape persecution and poverty. "This is unfortunate because in our experience, refugees generally do not commit crimes in the host country because they are deeply afraid of being sent home," Turk said.

Ethnic minorities in Myanmar, also known as Burma, have long faced persecution from the military junta, and many are hiding in jungles, or have attempted to leave the country. In 2004, the Malaysian government announced it would recognize Rohingyas as refugees and grant temporary stay permits, but many still get rounded up in raids against illegal immigrants. The status of other groups seeking refuge here was not immediately clear.

Also Thursday, a small group of just over 20 people from the All-Burma Democratic Force protested outside the U.N. office here, witnesses said, demanding the UNHCR give ethnic Myanmar minorities more protection and "implement human rights principles."

The UNHCR, in a separate statement, said it was doing its "utmost to protect and assist genuine refugees" in Malaysia.

Local civic rights group Suaram has condemned Malaysia's crackdown on Myanmar refugees, saying authorities have stepped up raids since the beginning of the year, with many indiscriminately arrested.

The UNHCR did not directly address the issue of raids by authorities, but had earlier asked the Southeast Asian nation to uphold its humanitarian commitment to refugees. (IHT)
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