The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has defended its registration card system by pointing out that it has tough security measures and high quality cards that are not easily duplicated.

This comes following criticism of the UNHCR by government officials for mismanagement and allowing its registration card system to be abused, with fake UNHCR cards available for as low as US$30.

The UNHCR representative for Malaysia, Richard Towle, said the Malaysian government seems to have also misunderstood the role of UNHCR in the country.

"Our role here is given to us by the United Nations, of which Malaysia is one of the members.

“Let's be clear that Malaysia is part of the United Nations - and the United Nations has been given the responsibility to help take refugees where countries don't feel they can do it on their own.

"We are here to help Malaysia deal with the refugee problem, we are not a substitute for Malaysia's responsibilities to deal with refugees," Towle said, as reported by Channel News Asia .

Yesterday, Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed ( photo ) said that even the immigration authorities have difficulty differentiating between fake and real UNHCR cards.

"There are incidents where people not from Myanmar... have UNCHR card. Because when they run out of social passes, when they overstay, they go to the UNHCR office and apply for status as refugees.

"Actually that is wrong... we are telling the UNHCR: you will be responsible for the cards you issue, whether it is forged by agents on the street or issued by them, they have to take responsibility," Nur Jazlan said.

However, Towle said that their procedures for genuine refugees have very strong security features and the cards are of high quality and cannot be duplicated.

Move to work out the kinks with Malaysia

"We are satisfied that the procedures we have put in place for genuine refugees have very strong security features. There are tough tests and we produce high quality cards that cannot be duplicated - we can tell the difference between real cards and false cards," he said.

As such, UNHCR will work closer with the Malaysian government in order to work out these kinks, Towle conceded.

The government also wants the UNHCR to resettle registered asylum seekers and refugees in countries that are signatories to the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees to reduce security risks and the numbers of migrants in Malaysia.

Towle pointed out that the UNHCR had resettled more than 100,000 people over the past 10 years, but added that resettlement is not an option for everyone.

UNHCR wants the government to consider granting those who remain access to basic rights, such as the right to work.

Nur Jazlan said the government was looking into this, via a pilot programme launched in December last year.

"We are not signatories to the UNHCR agreement, therefore we are not responsible for the fate of the refugees here but for humanitarian reasons and because there's a large number of them in this country, due to the mismanagement of the UNHCR, we are now thinking of (how they can work here)," Nur Jazlan said.