CNI News
21 August 2022
With mass arrests of illegal migrants in Malaysia, there were more than 50 Rakhine migrants within two weeks and most of them do not have UNHCR cards.
Without the refugee cards, it is difficult to offer help for their release, Vice Chairman Ko Aung Min Thu of the Arakanese Community Malaysia (ARRC) told the CNI.
He said, “When our people are detained, we almost always ask for help from the UNHCR. If they are registered with the UNHCR, we just need to inform the arrests of the UN agency, which will contact the relevant officers and ask them to release the detainees at the court. Detainees who have not yet registered with the UNHCR may be sentenced to one to three months in prison at the court instead of four months prison terms usually handed down on them if the UNHCR offers help. authorities may only be able to reduce the prison terms. It also depends on relevant officers, who can reject the request of the UNHCR. Then, UNHCR officials can’t do anything more.”
As there is no agreement concerning the refugee card holders between the UNHCR and the Malaysian government, the card holders are allowed not to work but to stay in the country.
Among more than 40,000 Rakhine migrants in Malaysia, only about 6,000 have the refugee cards.
The registration of refugees in Malaysia was processed online in 2020 due to COVID-19 but some Rakhine migrants did not know this at the time due to a lack of knowledge. At present, there are too many applicants to issue the cards to all of them and some Rakhine migrants do not have the cards.
Ko Aung Min Thu of the ARRC said, “If a refugee or a expectant refugee come to them, they arrange a date for him or her to come again. Therefore, he or she are required to the UNHCR office on the scheduled date. It seems that the UNHCR office is unable to process many applicants within a short time and the application forms have piled up. Moreover, Malaysia is not a signatory to the agreement to accept refugees but it has already accepted about 190,000 refugees so far. I think it does not want to accept any more refugees because it worries that the refugees will settle in their country permanently. So, they may accept more refugees or not but the UNHCR has told us to continue to apply for refugee cards.”
Malaysia has already rounded up more than 200 Myanmar illegal migrants recently.
Currently, Malaysia is launching an operation against illegal migrants and prisons in Malaysia are crowded with the migrants form different countries. Detained Myanmar migrants are facing difficulties in prisons in Malaysia.
