Malaysian authorities are continuing to detain refugees and asylum seekers with 370 currently being held nationwide, a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) said today.

Of the number, 146 are Acehnese and 21 are Rohingya Burmese. Since last Thursday, five cases have been reported to UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur with at least one of the cases involving a person certified as a refugee by the agency.

"We have checked and double-checked and can confirm that an Acehnese possessing our protection letter has been detained in Kelantan since last Thursday," UNHCR deputy chief Carolin Verma said.

The other four have claimed to hold UNHCR documents and the agency is in the process of verifying their claim.

In a report last month, the UNHCR said 367 refugees are being held nationwide despite government assurances that no foreigners - whether asylum seekers or illegal migrants - would be detained during an extended amnesty period set for their return to their countries of origin.

"The UNHCR had requested the government early last month for a humanitarian gesture to be made in releasing detained Acehnese following the tsunami disaster. It was to enable them to deal with the tragedy and to contact loved ones back home," said Verma.

Amnesty extended

The government had on Oct 29 last year announced an amnesty offer allowing all undocumented migrant workers to return home without legal action being taken. A massive crackdown was to have been launched upon expiry of the period on Dec 31.

However, this was extended by a month following the tsunami disaster. According to news reports today, the amnesty may be extended following requests from countries affected by the calamity whose nationals are here.

The move to round up the close to 800,000 illegal migrants has been rapped by rights groups which say the move to deploy half a million police and civilian volunteers could result in abuse of power and vigilantism.

While the government has said that refugees and asylum seekers would not be targeted, its agencies, including the police and immigration departments, said they have not received any directive to this effect.

The government has also said the Rohingya would be recognised as refugees and that they would be given temporary resident status. The policy has not yet been implemented.