Government enforcement agencies and refugee agencies are making preparations to handle a possible influx of refugees fleeing the renewed armed conflict in the Indonesian province of Aceh.

Although details remain sketchy, it is apparent that Malaysia can expect to host a significant number of Acehnese, as it o­nce did with Vietnamese refugees from the mid-1970s to the mid- 1990s.

On Monday, the Indonesian military launched a large-scale offensive against Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebel positions following the failure of peace talks between the two sides in Japan.

This has raised concerns within the international community that a large-scale humanitarian crisis could arise as a result of the military operations.

Different treatment

Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Malaysia could face an influx of refugees and cautioned local authorities to be prepared for the "big possibility" that people would be fleeing here.

Contacted today, a Bukit Aman federal police headquarters spokesperson said precautionary measures have been put in place in anticipation of refugees from Aceh.

"We certainly have security measures along our shores, for instance in Penang. These are not just control measures but they are security measures as well, jointly undertaken with Interpol," said the spokesperson who declined to be named.

He said Acehnese refugees coming into Malaysia as a result of the war would be treated differently compared to previous episodes when enforcement authorities made no distinction between asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.

"Previously, some people came from Aceh but they came as illegal immigrants to seek a living. So they were classified as illegal immigrants," he explained.

"But in this case, (incoming refugees) will be treated as people migrating because of war and not as illegal immigrants."

He also said that enforcement authorities have identified specific areas where they can temporarily house displaced persons.

"Based o­n our monitoring work, however, we are still secure. People have not started coming in," said the spokesperson.

Immigration Department press relations officer Ahmad Shukri Abdul Majid said the matter had been brought up by the department's director-general, but declined to reveal details of plans discussed.

'Up to government'

Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Kuala Lumpur said several workshops had been held between the agency and national security departments to discuss contingency plans should Malaysia suddenly receive large numbers of refugees as a result of regional conflicts.

UNHCR associate protection officer Sharon Daniel said the most recent workshop was held in March, involving enforcement authorities such as the police and immigration in order to prepare for several possible outcomes of the Aceh peace talks.

Daniel said o­ne of the scenarios considered was what would happen if the peace talks between Jakarta and GAM separatists failed - as they did last weekend.

"We considered what would happen if there is an influx of refugees, where to house them, where to get supplies for them and who to involve (in co-ordinating the their arrival and placement). We considered (what could be used as) holding centres, such as schools," she said.

However, Daniel said the government had not indicated whether it would start preparing refugee facilities according to the contingency plans discussed.

"It is up to the government whether or not to adopt these measures. We do not know what is the government's plan. We, of course, hope that they would accept (the Acehnese)," she said.

On the UNHCR's role should the refugee influx become a reality, Daniel said the body would carry out its regular activities to arrange for third country resettlement of individuals recognised as refugees under the agency's mandate.

Daniel said the UNHCR had not noticed any jump in refugee applications over the last two days, but acknowledge that the number of applicants at its Kuala Lumpur office had been o­n the increase since last year.

Fake applicants

In an interview with malaysiakini last week, UNHCR protection officer Shinji Kubo said his office has been receiving between 100 and 150 applications over the past few months, mainly from Burmese and Acehnese asylum seekers living undocumented in Malaysia.

He noted that the number of asylum applicants had been gradually increasing since last August when a tough new immigration law came into force, allowing for the jailing and whipping of undocumented immigrants.

Contacted yesterday, Kubo said that, from previous experience, the Malaysian government has not distinguished between Acehnese persons and migrants from other parts of Indonesia.

"Generally, when the government deals with Indonesian migrants, it does not consider where they come from. So there are no exact figures of how many Acehnese there might be in Malaysia," he said.

According to Kubo, the UNHCR generally relies o­n asylum claims by the applicants to determine their eligibility for refugee status.

"Unless we have reasons to doubt their testimony, we normally take what they tell us as the truth. Otherwise, we have Acehnese interpreters who are able (to verify their status)," he said.

However, Kubo said the UNHCR had also received between 50 and 100 applications last year from Indonesians claiming to be Acehnese asylum seekers.

"When we questioned them, they told us that they came from Java but were sent to the UNHCR by their employment agents," he explained.

Vietnamese refugees

Malaysia last officially hosted large numbers of refugees after the Vietnam war in the 1970s.

Between 1975 and 1997, Malaysia was reported to have provided temporary refuge to nearly 255,000 Vietnamese boat people, some 248,000 of whom were resettled in third countries.

The last of such camps closed o­nly in the 1996 with the repatriation of the last batch of boat people to their home country.

Although Malaysia is still not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention which requires its members to provide temporary placement for displaced person from conflict zones, the country is home to a significant number of asylum seekers from neighbouring countries.

About 20,000 Burmese asylum seekers are estimated to live undocumented in Malaysia. Most alleged they face religious and ethnic persecution by the Burmese military in their home provinces.

Thousands of Filipino migrants living in Sabah are also alleged to have fled constant fighting between government forces and separatist rebels in southern Philippines.

More are expected to arrive in Sabah in the coming months as news broke this week that the United States would be providing additional troops to assist the Manila government in suppressing the southern secessionist movement.