The Malaysian Bar - Press Release: Government must provide clear and humanitarian-based legal & administrative framework for refugees and asylum-seekers

Press Release: Government must provide clear and humanitarian-based legal & administrative framework for refugees and asylum-seekers

Saturday, 19 June 2010 04:44pm

World Refugee Day is observed on 20 June each year. It is a day where we recognise the plight of refugees wherever they are located throughout the world and the efforts being undertaken to address their situation. In conjunction with World Refugee Day tomorrow, the Malaysian Bar calls for the Malaysian Government to pay serious attention to the dire circumstances facing refugees and asylum-seekers here in Malaysia.

Refugees and asylum-seekers, particularly women and children, are often at risk of arrest, prosecution, detention and deportation. In some cases, they are trafficked upon deportation.

The refugee population in Malaysia consists of 87,700 registered refugees and asylum-seekers, as well as an estimated unregistered population of about 45,000 persons (as at the end of April 2010). Close to 92% of the registered refugee population in Malaysia are persons from Myanmar while persons from countries such as Sri Lanka, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine make up the majority of the remaining 8%. The bulk of the refugees and asylum-seekers are in the greater Kuala Lumpur metropolitan area, in Penang and in Johor Bahru.

Although Malaysia is not a State Party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, the Malaysian Government continues to cooperate with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in addressing refugee issues on humanitarian grounds. The Malaysian Government has stated that it is improving its legislative framework to establish an appropriate mechanism for the treatment of such persons. The Malaysian Government has also stated that it is engaged with the UNHCR in developing a legislative framework to coordinate policy and enforcement measures towards irregular migrants claiming refugee status.

In conjunction with World Refugee Day 2010, and in order to assist the Malaysian Government and the UNHCR to put in place an appropriate legal and administrative framework for dealing with refugees and asylum-seekers in a more humane and appropriate, and less arbitrary, manner, the Malaysian Bar calls upon the Malaysian Government:

1. to clearly state its respect for and adherence to the principle of non-refoulement, which is part of customary international law;

2. to stop arresting refugees and asylum-seekers who are already in Malaysia for not possessing the documentation required by Section 6 of the Immigration Act. Alternatively, to invoke the power of exemption provided by Section 55 of the Immigration Act. Such exemption should not only cover refugees and asylum-seekers themselves but also members of their families, and also to those rendering assistance to them on humanitarian grounds;

3. to request UNHCR to carry out a comprehensive registration and timely refugee status determination for all refugees and asylum-seekers. This would include issuing an administrative directive granting immediate access by UNHCR to both immigration detention centres and prisons to seek, identify, register and release refugees and asylum-seekers who have yet to be registered with UNHCR;

4. to allow for birth registration for children of refugees and asylum-seekers and to make the process easier;

5. to allow refugees to register their marriages with the Civil Registry using their UNHCR identity cards as a recognised and acceptable form of identification;

6. to allow Muslim refugees and asylum-seekers to access the Syariah court system whereby various family disputes including marriage, divorce, maintenance and custody could be adjudicated upon;

7. to issue IMM13 documents to Rohingyas who are already in Malaysia as promised earlier, and renew lapsed IMM13 documents, and to consider issuing IMM13 to other groups of refugees residing in Malaysia;

8. to put into place a moratorium on whipping as a sentence for breaches of the Immigration Act, and expedite the training of judicial and legal service officers in international human rights norms (particularly the non-acceptability of whipping);

9. to give priority to the employment of refugees and asylum-seekers and members of their families who are already physically present in Malaysia;

10. to allow, assist and support access to vocational schools, technical education and vocational training centres for “out-of-school” refugee and asylum-seeker youth under the age of 18 years, and to tertiary education and public colleges and universities for qualified refugee and asylum-seeker youth;

11. to ensure better access to health care services for refugees and asylum-seekers and to apply rates paid by Malaysians for public health services to refugees and asylum-seekers;

12. to accede to the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol; and

13. to persuade the Government of refugee-producing countries of origin to recognise that it is governmental policy or action which is causing refugees and asylum-seekers to leave their country of origin.

In any event the present legal situation and conditions of life of refugees and asylum-seekers and their families in Malaysia is degrading, demeaning and dehumanising, and wholly unacceptable to any civilised society. The Malaysian Bar calls upon the Malaysian Government to give the issue of refugees and asylum-seekers serious and immediate consideration. As a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council beginning from 21 June 2010, our treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers in our country should reflect the highest standards and norms of international human rights.

Dato’ M. Ramachelvam
Chairperson
Law Reform and Special Areas Committee
Bar Council

19 June 2010

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