UNHCR urged to speed up refugee resettlement

 

PARLIAMENT | The United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) has been urged to speed up the process of resettling refugees, said Deputy Foreign Minister Mohamad Alamin.

Mohamad (BN-Kimanis) said that the process of resettlement included moving them to another country or back to their country of origin.

“The UNHCR international organisation for migration has been urged to give more cooperation and increase its commitment and efforts in resettling these refugees,” he said.

Mohamad (above) added that UNHCR cardholders are protected and are exempted from being resettled unless they are involved in crimes.

As of May, there are 185,760 UNHCR cardholders in Malaysia.

Of this figure, 83 percent (160,332) were from Myanmar, with 107,433 being Rohingyas.

Other nationalities of refugees included Pakistanis (7,109), Yemenis (3,466), Afghans (3,444), Somalians (3,161), and Syrians (3,161).

A recent study by the Protecting Rohingya Refugees in Asia project found that Rohingya refugees in Malaysia were not draining public resources; instead, they were found to be “self-reliant” with “minimal dependence” on the Malaysian government.

According to the Malay Mail, 158 out of 200 respondents reported incidents involving Malaysian authorities due to the lack of legal recognition and protection, such as being arrested or detained, being extorted for money, and having their UNHCR card confiscated or damaged.

School admission rules

Meanwhile, Bernama reported that the Education Ministry is looking into amending the rules on school admission to ensure children, including non-citizens and the undocumented, have access to education.

Minister Fadhlina Sidek reportedly said the amendment to the Education Regulations (Admission of Pupils to School, Register Keeping and Conditions for Retaining Pupils at School) 1998 would apply to admission to government and government-aided schools.

"This amendment will ensure that children in this country have access to education, guided by the existing laws, without compromising the country’s sovereignty and constitution.

"It includes non-citizen children, with undetermined citizenship status and children without identification documents who were previously not included under the regulation," she said in winding up the debate on the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) annual report for her ministry in the Dewan Rakyat.

Fadhlina said the ministry was in the midst of looking into ways to allow refugee children to enrol in schools through this amendment. - Mkini