KUALA LUMPUR: The “invisible communities” here need legal protection of
their rights. Consisting largely of refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless
people, these groups have no legal status here. The law as it now stands has no
provision for refugees or stateless people.
“The Immigration Act 1969 only recognises Malaysian citizens
and aliens (immigrants) who enter the country with valid documents,” lawyer and
advocate for stateless people Amer Hamzah Arshad said during the session on “The
Invisible Communities in Malaysia” at the 14th Malaysian Law Conference
yesterday.
“There is no grey area — your status is either legal or illegal.”
Even refugees registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) do not have formal recognition from the government as Malaysia has not
signed the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
“But Malaysia has accepted the convention’s principles which are customary to
international law with regards to refugees,” UNHCR representative to Malaysia Dr
Volker Turk said, adding that Malaysia has recognised the principle barring
states from returning refugees or asylum seekers to their country of origin.
“These refugees have well-founded fears of persecution on
grounds of race, religion, nationality, politics or membership of a social
group,” Turk said.
The case of stateless people is different.
“In most cases, they were born and have lived here for generations, yet they are
not recognised as Malaysians. They don’t have rights of citizens, so are denied
education and work. Even opening a bank account is problematic,” Amer said.
Often they are in this situation because of ignorance, illiteracy, poverty,
stigma or social pressure, he added.
Tenaganita executive director Dr Irene Fernandez said migrant workers must not
be left out of the discussion on addressing the rights of refugees, asylum
seekers and stateless people.
There are about three million migrant workers here, of whom 1.8 million are
documented. This figure is expected to increase to five million by 2015, said
Fernandez.
“Their passports are withheld, wages are unpaid for months, and they are at the
mercy of their employers who have the power to cancel their work permits
anytime,” Fernandez said.
She said it can be difficult for a migrant worker to seek legal redress because
the work permit states that the agent who brought the workers in is the
employer, rather than the company they actually work for.
All agreed that these problems must be addressed quickly.
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KUALA LUMPUR: The “invisible communities” here need legal protection of
their rights. Consisting largely of refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless
people, these groups have no legal status here. The law as it now stands has no
provision for refugees or stateless people.
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