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Today, the 20th of June, is World Refugee Day. It is a day for us to reflect on the harsh realities experienced by the millions of human beings around the world who are driven from their homelands by persecution, violence or conflict.

Just as the poor find themselves in the predicament through impoverishment rather than by choice, it is important to bear in mind that refugees (unlike economic migrants) are victims of persecution who are compelled to abandon everything at home, fleeing to a foreign shore to seek safety and refuge, facing an uncertain future.

Malaysia is host to a significant refugee population, many of whom are from Aceh and Myanmar. Unfortunately, Malaysian law does not expressly recognize the concept of refugees. They are often treated under our laws as “illegal immigrants”, and are thus vulnerable to arrest, detention, imprisonment, whipping and deportation.

Refugees in Malaysia are confronted by the workings of a legal system that is not properly geared to according them due process. For instance, when they are arrested, they often do not know what charges are brought against them. They are not informed of their right to legal representation, and are not provided with reasonable opportunity to seek assistance, such as from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). When they are charged in court under the Immigration Act, the lack of adequate interpretation frequently renders the process far from satisfactory. Those who have no legal representation are at times “nudged” into pleading guilty, the full implications of which are neither properly explained to nor fully understood by them, until it is too late.

The Rohingyas are a minority Muslim group from the Aranakan region of western Myanmar. They are subject to human rights violations in their home country.

Those who do not plead guilty usually end up spending long and indeterminate periods in remand, in overcrowded centres and under deplorable conditions. Common and recurring accounts given by refugees indicate that they are subjected to physical and emotional trauma, given stale food, live under conditions of poor sanitation and hygiene (that lead to medical complications), and are not provided with adequate or prompt medical treatment. There are even cases of child refugees in detention suffering from fear and severe depression as a result of their traumatic experience, which raise serious concern.

The World Refugee Survey in 2005 places Malaysia as one of the worst offenders of refugee rights. It tells of documentation of cruel and inhumane treatment of refugees in our prisons and detention camps, and our conveyor-belt procedures of deportation and repatriation. We cannot ignore these problems. We cannot go on thinking that these are the best ways in which a humane and compassionate society can treat fellow human beings who are in desperate need of help and who have already suffered so much.

Against this backdrop, the Bar Council notes that there are signs of improvement. Some magistrates have become more enlightened with refugee rights, and are beginning to take them into account in the legal process. The Malaysian Government has recently stated that it will accord refugees, in particular the Rohingyas from Myanmar and the Filipinos in Sabah, the right to work. This, if implemented, will be a much better and more pragmatic approach in dealing with the issues, especially when Malaysia is in need of migrant workers. We hope that this right will be granted to all refugees.

But much more needs to be done, by the Government, the Immigration Department, the police and the courts, to accord refugees their right to fair and humane treatment and to restore respectability to the way in which we manage a human condition deserving empathy rather than the further inflicting of pain.

In view of the mismatch between our domestic laws and the social realities of this region as well as our international and humanitarian obligations, the Bar Council strongly urges the Government to take immediate and adequate steps to prevent human rights abuses against refugees and displaced persons, and to accord them protection from repatriation and deportation. It is high time that Malaysia ratifies the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, both of which are instruments encapsulating customary international law in relation to the recognition of the socio-economic rights of refugees and the provision of humanitarian assistance and social integration for them.

Yeo Yang Poh
Chairman
Bar Council

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