In times when fears of terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia still loom large, it is understandable why Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar was concerned when a group of Rohingya asylum seekers set ablaze the Burmese embassy in Kuala Lumpur and attacked its envoy earlier this month.

To reassure other diplomats, Noh quickly pointed out that it was an isolated incident and bore no relation to a bomb scare just weeks earlier at the Australian embassy.

While there appears no reason to doubt his reading of these two incidents, Noh was however, not entirely correct in claiming that the embassy was torched due to a dispute between officials there and the Rohingyas.

(Three Rohingya brothers arrested for the attack have since been charged with attempted murder of the envoy. If found guilty, they could be jailed for up to 20 years.)

In reality, it was only the latest in a series of incidents taking place at foreign missions involving Rohingya asylum seekers in Malaysia.

In 2002, the community came under the spotlight when several groups broke into the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) compound in Kuala Lumpur to seek asylum.

Last year, their presence was highlighted again when six men were arrested as they tried to scale the gates of the United States embassy here in a bid for refuge.

Unsurprisingly, these incidents have made the authorities extremely nervous. In the days after the embassy burning, Rohingyas living in and around the city claimed they were warned by police personnel against causing further trouble.

But while the government is quick to respond when untoward incidents occur, what it has stubbornly refused to acknowledge is that these outbursts may be related to the growing frustration among the Rohingyas over their uncertain status.

Extortion racket

Most Rohingyas first entered Malaysia in the early to mid-1990s claiming to have fled persecution in their home state by the Burmese military. The junta is also said to have been systematically stripping the community of its citizenship.

As a stateless people, the Rohingyas say they should qualify for asylum in Malaysia. However, this has been far from their fate.

Some 10,000 Rohingyas are estimated to be living in Malaysia and about half of them are registered with the UNHCR.

Since Malaysia does not differentiate between political asylum seekers and economic migrants, undocumented Rohingyas have been subjected to a harsh immigration law which allows for them to be whipped and jailed if convicted of illegal entry and domicile.

To make matters worse, the lack of status and rights of these people has made them particularly vulnerable to exploitation by numerous individuals, from human traffickers to corrupt law enforcement officers.

For instance, asylum seekers deported to Thailand invariably fall prey to 'snakeheads' who hold them captive until they are able to pay their way to freedom.

Once back in Malaysia, they would have to work to pay off their debts a task made more difficult by their exploitation at the hands of unscrupulous employers who refuse to pay salaries, knowing that undocumented workers have no legal recourse.

Another common allegation by the Rohingyas (and other asylum seekers) is that they are regularly subjected to extortion by corrupt police personnel.

Criminal elements

Aside from humanitarian considerations, there are good reasons for the government to be concerned about the plight of the Rohingyas, one of which is the possibility that many may eventually turn to crime as a matter of survival.

In its 2002 annual report, Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) noted the views of a Rohingya representative that high unemployment rate and financial hardship would make it highly likely for criminal elements to infiltrate the community and for desperate Rohingyas to resort to petty crimes.

This may already be happening. Last year, police arrested 30 Burmese nationals during a drug bust in Johor Bahru including a 13-year-old girl who was found in possession of 415gm of heroin an amount sufficient to get her the death penalty if convicted as an adult

Ghiyathudeen, a Rohingya community leader, said the temptation for these dispossessed people to be recruited into criminal groups is only too palpable. Not only are they vulnerable and unprotected, they are also undocumented. If they are arrested, no one would likely to cause a fuss.

"The governments in this region should be very worried. These are large numbers of mobile people moving across borders," said Ghiyathudeen.

"They have no identities. If they are recruited by criminal gangs, it could really undermine regional security."

At the moment, scant information is available on the operations of criminal syndicates in the region but those who have gone through the experience testify that people smuggling gangs operating in Burma, Thailand and Malaysia rely on a chain of 'agents', most of whom are Thai or Burmese nationals.

Operating in tandem with these groups, said another Burmese community leader who requested anonymity, are syndicates that produce counterfeit documents ranging from fake passports to work permits.

"It is very hard for Burmese people to obtain passports. Those who want a renewal are required to pay 15 percent of their future pay to their embassy. Many people just prefer to obtain a fake pass which costs about RM100," he claimed.

Suhakam's proposal

Meanwhile, Suhakam has made several workable proposals to deal with the problems faced by the Rohingyas.

As immediate measures, the commission said there should be a mechanism to register the asylum seekers, particularly the Rohingyas because of their statelessness, in order to ascertain their actual numbers.

Employers too should be allowed to hire documented Rohingyas so as to avoid aggravating the unemployment situation and growing poverty within the community.

In the longer term, Suhakam said Kuala Lumpur must exert pressure on Rangoon to come to a mutually acceptable solution with regard to the Rohingyas.

However, the government has pointedly ignored these suggestions. To date, Malaysia remains poles apart from Rangoon on the subject of the Rohingyas.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, when questioned by the press last September, maintained that as far as Malaysia was concerned, the Rohingyas are "definitely from Myanmar and they should be sent back to Myanmar".

However, Burmese counsellor to Kuala Lumpur Khin Maung Lynn, the diplomat who was injured by the Rohingya brothers in the embassy incident, disagreed. Khin claimed that the Rohingyas were from Bangladesh and had crossed into Burma's Arakan state in the 1970s.

He told the national news agency Bernama that the Rohingyas in Malaysia have no status with the Burmese government and "are not from Myanmar".

Unwanted people

But even as governments affected by the Rohingya diaspora continue to pussyfoot around the issue when dealing with Rangoon, the international community's approach has not been worthy of praise either.

A common complaint by Rohingyas who have sought assistance from the UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur is the apparent disinclination on the part of the agency to address their woes.

"We go to the UNHCR almost everyday to wait for our refugee application results but they keep telling us that they have no decision. Other groups have a much higher chance of success when they apply," said Ahmad (not his real name), a Rohingya asylum seeker who first filed his application two years ago.

Other Rohingyas hoping to file their applications for refugee status come across another obstacle. Since last year, the agency has stopped processing individual asylum applications from members of the community.

Those approaching the agency are simply issued with letters which state that they "registered as a Rohingya Muslim with the UNHCR" but little more.

UNHCR senior community services officer Jennifer Ashton said the agency decided to dispense with the individual recognition process since it acknowledges that all Rohingyas have been collectively labelled as "foreign citizens" by their government.

Given shortages of manpower and resources, Ashton said the UNHCR decided that a better approach was for the Rohingyas to be issued with temporary protection letters rather than to have them wait in an interview queue which could take years.

In addition, Rohingyas tend to score low points in moves to being resettled in any of the accepting countries, usually in North America, Europe, Australia or New Zealand.

The Rohingyas, said Ashton, are usually poorly educated and have limited work and/or language skills. A large number of them also marry early, have large families and practice polygamy.

"All of which resettlement countries find difficult to deal with. It is understandable that resettlement countries, which have a large number of refugees to choose from, would prefer those who are not going to potentially have social problems," she added.

So unless resettlement is possible, refugee recognition alone would be meaningless since the status carries no weight with the Malaysian government.

Undeniably, the only permanent solution to the Rohingya problem is for their status as Burmese nationals to be resolved once and for all. Having said that, it should not be an excuse for the international community to ignore their plight.

As for Malaysia, while it may be easy to deport the Rohingyas or other asylum seekers out of the country whenever trouble arises, policy-makers responsible for these knee-jerk reactions would do well to consider the wider implications of repeatedly victimising people who have very little left to lose.

YAP MUN CHING, a former malaysiakini journalist, is currently pursuing further studies in the United Kingdom.