FOCUS The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and various human rights organisations have urged Malaysia to release the Myanmar refugees held in its detention centres without delay, after a one-year period had lapsed.

However, based on psst experience, and despite the deplorable conditions in the Immigration detention centres, things do not necessarily get easier for the refugees if they are released.

As of April this year, approximately 154,140 refugees from various countries were registered as residing in Malaysia, of which 139,780 (90.68 percent) came from Myanmar, of whom 53,410 were Rohingya people.

Some 68 percent of the refugees then were male, about 34,600 of them children, and an untold number of other refugees remain unregistered.

Nevertheless - registered or not - Malaysian law treats them as illegal migrants and they are denied jobs, medical care and education opportunities.

To make ends meet, they work illegally in the labour market and become vulnerable to exploitation. Some are targeted by human traffickers and are taken away on a journey of no return.

As a refugee in a country that does not recognise - even despises them refugees - it becomes a struggle to just to get by. Even applying for a UNHCR refugee identification card becomes a daunting ordeal.

June 20 of each year is World Refugee Day. A week earlier, Malaysiakini met with several Rohingya asylum seekers in an isolated village in southern Kedah, with the help of an NGO championing rights for refugees.

In one village house there, a refugee, Farhalan (not his real name), and several other Rohingya men are seated on a carpet in the middle of the living room, with their identification papers. An NGO worker helps them to fill up forms to apply for the UNHCR card.

“I have gone to UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur four times, but it’s getting nowhere. Without the ‘protection’ of the identification card, me and my family can forget about getting medical attention, even if we are willing to pay for it,” lamented Farhalan, who is married with three children.

Many visits, zero results

Among migrants, stories like Farhalan’s are common. has heard from four refugees, and each has gone to the UNHCR office between four to nine times - sometimes alone and sometimes with the whole family - but returned empty handed each time.

For the Rohingya, usually the men come alone to Malaysia first, and then the wife and children follow and meet with them a few years later. They take things one step of a time, as opportunity presents itself.

Wahid (not his real name), who helps with translation for local refugee NGOs, is also feeling helpless.

The chronically short-staffed UNHCR can hardly cope with the growing number of refugees in Malaysia, and it doesn’t help that they are also busy launching an upgraded identification card. As a result, asylum seekers with families are given priority, and single persons are practically sidelined.

On top of the application forms, there is a column for the urgency of the applicant’s case – whether it is an ‘emergency’, ‘urgent’, or ‘normal’.

According to Penang Stop Human Trafficking Campaign coordinator James Lochhead, the UNHCR is unlikely to be processing ‘normal’ cases under the present circumstance.

“But without the refugee card, they would live in fear and spend their days worrying whether they would get arrested and detained by the authorities, or refused medical attention,” Lochhead said.

Although the refugees themselves seldom complain of the red tape involved, Lochhead is dissatisfied with the UNHCR’s efficiency, and hopes the agency would double its efforts so that the refugees don’t have to suffer for much longer.

“To say that they are not hardworking, not proactively going to find refugees to register is incorrect. In recent years, they sent mobile teams to Penang at least twice. It is just that it is not enough.

“Countless asylum seekers have to go to Kuala Lumpur again and again, creating stress on their already stretched finances. On the road, they would have to be wary of the police and of the People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela). It’s frustrating.

“As for those who had been detained, there are tens of detention centres in Malaysia. The UNHCR is visiting them one after another, while those locked inside can just wait and wait indefinitely,” Lochhead said.

Government needs new solutions

As for whether the government would be able to deport or resettle the refugees to a third country within the year, Lochhead has reservations.

“The situation is more complicated than previously thought. The asylum seekers not only have to be first registered as refugee, and they also have to attend interviews and wait for resettlement.

“There is already a large backlog in the applications in Malaysia, so how is the government going to handle it? Is the UNHCR supposed to let them jump queue?” he said.

With old problems unresolved and new ones cropping up, it is up to the Malaysian government to decide whether the crisis is also an opportunity.

Last year, UNHCR Malaysia representative Richard Towle (photo) told reporters that due to conflicts breaking out in the Middle East and Africa, and the international attention that it draws, the era of resettling refugees stranded in Malaysia to other countries would soon end.

“The number of places available for resettlement, internationally, for the refugees in Malaysia is also shrinking fast, so we need to try and find a solution soon,” Towle said.

He believes that ‘humanitarian solutions’ cannot resolve the refugee crisis, and the problem in Myanmar needs to be dealt with politically.

Towle also suggested that the Malaysian government implements more durable solutions for refugees, such as providing them with legal recognition, allow them to work and to integrate with the local community.

Finding mass graves does not solve problems

Lochhead points out that many refugees are victims of human trafficking syndicates. Instead of locking up the refugees, it would be better to use them to help track and shut down these syndicates.

“Last year, everyone was shocked by the discovery of Rohingya mass graves in Wang Kelian, along the Malaysia-Thai border. A year on, has anyone been held accountable? In contrast, the refugees are still in trouble,” Lochhead said.

On May 9 this year, four people - three Myanmar and one Bangladesh nationals - had been charged in court over the matter. However, Lochhead believes that that a solution is still far away.

“Finding mass graves doesn’t mean we have solved the problem. The finding of the mass graves merely proves what the refugees had been telling us,” he said.

“After the finding, the New Straits Times cited a Special Branch report that some 80 percent of border security personnel are on the payroll of human traffickers and arms and drug smugglers. Since then, nothing has been heard about the report or its findings.

“We don’t know if the authorities are investigating this serious allegation,” he said.

Last year, civil society groups working through the Migration Working Group approached MPs on this issue, in the hope that they would take up the issue and find legislative and policy solutions to it. Their report contained three suggestions, but there was little concrete action.

Domestically, Lochhead believes that the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) and Council for Anti-Trafficking in Persons have an important role to play, while the Malaysian government should act at the regional level, through the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean).

“Haven’t we heard enough shocking details over the past year for us to act?” he lamented, as the refugee crisis that has been gripping the country has failed to bring about any positive changes.

On May 28, Amnesty International issued a statement calling for the human traffickers who had set the refugees adrift at sea to be punished, not their victims.

Reopening old wounds for naught

Lochhead pointed out that the refugees in Malaysia are living in constant fear, and can’t help but relive their traumatic experiences with each retelling of their story. This adds to their psychological scars.

“Their story has been told again and again, but nothing ever changes,” he said. “It is a Catch-22 situation.”

Helpers of these refugees hope to harness the power of the media and NGOs to draw attention to the seriousness of their plight, but don’t have the heart to allow the refugees to relive their experiences, and then be denied the changes that they are hoping for.

Wahid, who has been constantly helping other refugees, is also hoping to be resettled. He recently got married and is preparing to update the UNHCR on this, in the hope that he would soon be called in for an interview.

As his interview with Malaysiakini drew to a close, he was asked on what’s next in his life. Then, the phone rings.

“My friend called to say goodbye. She is about to board a plane to her host country,” Wahid said.

After the called ended, he answered the question without hesitation.

“Just keep waiting and waiting.”

Yesterday – Part 1: Refugees: We live a life worse than animals