Malaysian Rohingya Refugees Sosaity (MRS)

Since descending upon New Delhi more than a month ago, ethnic Rohingyas from Myanmar have been rounded up twice by police and ordered to leave, but the stateless group is determined to get the Indian government to recognize them as refugees.

“India is a great democracy, and that is why we want to stay here,” said Ziaur Rehman, who heads the group of Rohingya asylum seekers who have been camping in India’s capital since April 9 to lobby the government for refugee status.

Mr. Rehman spoke to India Ink on Wednesday from the Okhla neighborhood in south Delhi. Until Tuesday morning, he, along with an estimated 2,500 people originally from the Rakhine state in Myanmar, had been living in a makeshift camp near Vasant Kunj in southwest Delhi. This was the second time that the Rohingya had been forced to move since they arrived in the capital. Initially, they had squatted outside the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the upscale Vasant Vihar area for nearly a month. They were demanding “refugee status, help with access to health care, school admissions for their children, resettlement and financial assistance,” said Nayana Bose, associate external relations officer for the organization in New Delhi.piece of land upon which they had pitched their tarpaulin tents in Vasant Kunj belonged to the government, but their presence raised the ire of the local residents in the wealthy South Delhi neighborhood and resulted in the asylum seekers’ eviction. The police packed them into trucks and dropped them off at several locations, including the Delhi railway station and the main interstate bus terminal in Kashmiri Gate in north Delhi, Mr. Rehman said.

India is not a signatory to the United Nations convention relating to the status of refugees, which defines who qualifies as a refugee and refugees’ rights in their host country. Since there is no national law that deals with foreign refugees, the government will decide whether or not to grant the Rohingyas refugee status on a case-by-case basis.

Asylum seekers can be given the United Nations refugee cards, but only at the discretion of the UN agency. The Rohingyas said that the agency told them that the process of granting such cards could take time.

The Muslim minority group has suffered persecution for decades in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. A large number of Rohingya have fled to neighboring countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, and several thousand have entered India through Bangladesh.

Some of these people who gathered in the Indian capital have been living in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Hyderabad and Rajasthan, for several years. “They first approached the UNHCR in 2009,” Ms. Bose said, referring to the refugee agency, “but many have lived for longer periods of time in India.”

The Rohingya presence in India is not officially documented, as they have not officially registered with the government’s foreigner offices. Only 1,800 Rohingyas have registered with the United Nations, while several thousand are estimated to be living in India.

A spokesman from the Ministry of External Affairs, Syed Akbaruddin, said that unlike people from other nationalities, like the Afghans or Tibetans, who have been living in India, the Rohingya are stateless. “They are not accepted as citizens in Myanmar,” he said.
When India Ink visited the Rohingya camp last week near Vasant Kunj, several people flashed laminated white cards, which they said had been issued by the Myanmar government, that described the cardholders as “state guests” – meaning they were not entitled to any citizens’ rights in Myanmar.

The deserted Mr. Rehman said the Rohingyas had been imported as laborers from across the world during the British colonial rule in then-Burma, but they have never been recognized as citizens by the country.

Like many others in the camp, he landed in the northern Indian city of Jammu in 2011 after he crossed the border from Bangladesh, where several other Rohingyas worked as day laborers. After working as a medical assistant at a hospital in Jammu for three months, he moved on to Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh and taught at madrasas, or schools where instruction is based on the teachings of the Koran.

Other Rohingyas call the popular Mr. Rehman “doctor” even though he attended school only up to grade 10 in Myanmar. “They did not let us study any further,” he said, referring to the government.

The Rohingyas who approached the United Nations refugee agency have been issued asylum-seeker cards, which are valid for only four years from their date of issue. While that is the only proof of identification that they have in India, many of them say that it is useless.

Nazeer Hussain, 28, who worked as a laborer in Jammu, said, “Police in the state harassed me, asking me what my father’s name was, as this card does not have his name written on it.”

He said he was not paid for his work and that the United Nations asylum seeker card did not help resolve anything. “We will not leave till we get the refugee card,” he said.

The United Nations agency’s chief of mission, Montserrat Feixas Vihe, who met with representatives from the Rohingya community on Tuesday, said in a statement that the Indian government will be issuing long-term stay visas for asylum seekers from northern Rakhine state who are registered with the agency.

But G.V. Venugopala Sarma, the joint secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs who deals with foreigners, said the Rohingyas need to go back to the Indian cities in which they were residing and register with the foreign regional registration office. The superintendent of police in their city, who serves as the foreign registration officer, will conduct a thorough verification based on the internal guidelines of the government of India, he said.

“Only after such a verification, a case-by-case assessment will be made whether the person has a well-founded fear of persecution or it is purely for economic reasons they want to seek the refugee status,” Mr. Sarma said. After that, a decision will be made on whether or not they will be granted a long-term visa, he added.

He defended the way the Indian government has dealt with refugees in the past, saying, “India has always had an impeccable record of taking care of refugees of all kinds in a humane manner.”

The Rohingya presence in New Delhi has not gone unnoticed by politicians. On Wednesday, the home minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, was questioned in the Rajya Sabha, or upper house of the Parliament, by a fellow member, Balbir Punj, about the Rohingya camp in the capital.

“They demanded that they should be given refugee cards by the UNHCR,” said Mr. Chidambaram, “under the mistaken impression that the UNHCR will give a refugee card to anyone, who has come from any other country, and that the card will give them access to a number of benefits. Perhaps, they were misguided by some people. They have all been persuaded to go back to the places from which they came.”

Another member of Parliament, Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), told the home minister: “If people from other religions have been allowed and Muslims have been denied, then it is very unfair.”

Mr. Chidambaram denied that there was any discrimination against the Rohingya asylum seekers on religious grounds.

As the politicians debate the plight of the Rohingyas’, the Rohingyas have defied the authorities as they continue to stay put in New Delhi, at least for now.

Asad Ghazi Ansari, the president of the nongovernmental organization Nawa-e-Haque, which has been helping the Rohingyas with food and medicine, said that most of the Rohingyas returned from where the police had left them.

On Wednesday, about 500 of them had assembled in Batla House, in the Okhla neighborhood in south Delhi, on what Mr. Ansari called “community land,” which meant that the land belonged to members of the Muslim community.

He said that his organization is making arrangements to get the other Rohingya together and set up another makeshift camp for them at Batla House.

“The issue was discussed in the Parliament today,” Mr. Ansari said. “As the movement is gaining momentum, we won’t let it die.”

Today We are Hav I’ve been following the issue of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority from Myanmar (formerly Burma) since January 2008. If you scroll all the way back through our entire Rohingya Reports category to the beginning you will find this post in which I wrote about how Time magazine and the Hudson Institute both linked Rohingya “refugees” to Islamic radicalism. Now over two years later the drumbeat to resettle the Rohingya is reaching a crescendo. This is how it works, there is a deliberate media campaign that we have chronicled throughout 90 posts on the subject. Now the pressure is really building. Just in the last couple of days I see that Change.org is telling its activists to lobby the UN and the Office of Refugee Resettlement to resettle the Rohingya: Demand action from the UNHCR and the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement* to prioritize the resettlement of the Rohingya refugees and offer them the protection they deserve. * They should be lobbying the US State Department, but I am sure ORR will be happy to forward their demands to the federal department that makes the decisions on who gets into the US (with direction from the UN of course!). I have just learned that American Muslim activist groups are pushing Rohingya resettlement too. Here we have a report in which, surprise-surprise, they are also criticizing Muslim Bangladesh about its treatment of the Rohingya flowing into that country. But, of course reading down the article the idea of resettling Rohingya to the wide open spaces of North America is presented. Last week, the American Muslim Taskforce (AMT), an umbrella organization that includes the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), amongst other Muslim organizations in the USA, hosted a press conference in the National Press Club, Washington D.C. to discuss human rights abuses in Bangladesh. In his inaugural statement, Mr. Wright Mahdi Bray of the AMT brought up the squalid living conditions of the Rohingya refugees inside Bangladesh. In the last few years we have raised the Rohingya issue a few times with Bangladesh government, but have failed to improve the deplorable condition. [.....] Should the refugees choose to leave Bangladesh for a third country the government should not hinder that process either. It must also make all diplomatic efforts to find shelters for these stranded refugees in sparsely populated and prosperous countries of Europe and North America, and the Gulf states. This is the second time in recent weeks I have seen this reference to “sparsely populated” North America. I wonder if Change.org ever has any conflicts between its environmental activists who want to preserve American vistas and open space (not to mention, wanting clean air and water) and the activists pushing for higher populations through immigration. I hate to break it to you, but you can’t have both especially with such high birth rates among Muslim immigrants. Also, I’ve told you several times recently about how Rohingya refugees who have gone to Saudi Arabia have been imprisoned there, well this article from the Asian Tribune tells us more of the details of how that happened. So much for Muslim charity! To round out the troika this morning. I see that Christiane Amanpour has posted a CNN report entitled, “The forgotten people: Rohingya refugees.” I didn’t watch it, but I’m sure its the same old drumbeat. We are already resettling Rohingya Quietly and with no fanfare the US State Department has already begun resettling Rohingya Muslims to your cities, so has Canada and many European countries including the UK and Ireland. Tensions between Burmese Karen Christians, another persecuted minority from Burma, and the Muslim Burmese Rohingya continue to mount in resettlment cities although this goes unreported by the mainstream media that is still stuck in the American melting pot myth. If I lived in a resettlement city, especially one with a large Burmese population, I would be asking the resettlement agencies if more Rohingya are on the way. Those agencies have a tendency to gloss over concerns and play up the Burmese Christian refugee angle.

SERIOUS eyes, shoulder carry more weight. That's bad luck that befell the Rohingya refugees in Malaysia, they are oppressed and violated the rights of the Myanmar junta.

They were born as citizens of Myanmar, but was denied the right to have identity cards, and even basic human rights to live in their own land with a savagely violated. Rohingya women raped and violated every time the Myanmar military. Ethnic average follow Islam, but they are restricted to move freely even to the mosque to perform prayer. Unfortunately, many Malaysians especially the Malays who have a negative stigma against ethnic Rohingya refugees are treated like immigrants in the land of Malaysia, although they have endorsements from the United Nations (UN) to stay here. Kecetekan source of accurate information and ketidakpekaan the fate of ethnic Rohingya ethnic omitted resulted in Malaysian society. Although a large number of them have lived almost 45 years in Malaysia, they are unable to enjoy life like a normal human being. They are deprived of education, employment, health and safety and the law. To meet the needs of living here, they can only ask for alms from the public. Although most of them have a card UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), but the card is not much help, just to let them live in the nation. This is also acknowledged UNHCR itself.

To help children and young Rohingya is a basic education, a total of eight students from the Institute of Teachers, representing Penang Malaysian Humanitarian Foundation Muslim Aid voluntarily implement a program to read and write (2M) to defend the fate of these Rohingya children. Program held in Bagan Dalam, Pulau Pinang implemented three months from February to May 2010 with the assistance of UNHCR funds. According to program coordinator, Wardah Abdul Rahman, 25, the program is run on every Sunday starting at 9 am to 1 pm.

A total of 31 Rohingya children aged four to 17 years gathered to participate in this program. "The program is implemented to the Rohingya children because they do not have the privilege to gain knowledge as other children who are able to go to school. The program aims to help them master reading and writing skills so that they are no longer oppressed of the earth itself," he said. According to Wardah, to facilitate the teaching and learning process, all volunteers developing curriculum by dividing them into four groups according to the proficiency of these 2M. Achievement tests will be held at the end of the month to evaluate the performance of these students. They also provided teaching equipment and food provided the volunteers. During this period, every week of Rohingya children are taught to dominate the Malay language as they age. The course modules are fully prepared volunteers Muslim Aid also the facilitator of student teachers. "Although volunteers have difficulty interacting with children as they use the language of Myanmar, the seriousness and sincerity should be praised because they are willing to teach the basic Malay language," he said. However, something that is outside the knowledge of the seriousness of this Rohingya children receive knowledge. Even their own parents also have a greater awareness that education could change their fate. Difficult life had resulted in some neglected aspects of children's education. They can not afford to send children to private schools or study to attend extra classes that require large expenditures. So, the class for free as a volunteer service is very reliable. "Volunteers are given the 'green' to educate and teach our children their own way even when the full rigor for their children educated and actually become useful," he said.

Add Wardah, a short period of time for three months really is not enough for their learning. However, if after it received funding from the UNHCR will resume this program. For children who have advanced writing, reading and speaking in Malay, they will become trainers for the next generation. In this way education will continue to expand from one generation to another generation. Wardah hope that efforts could bring awareness to Malaysians about the problems that befell his seislam here.

KOTA BARU: The state Immigration Department has uncovered a new ploy by illegal immigrants trying to elude arrest; they are posing as refugees sanctioned by the United Nations High Commissioner (UNHCR) for Refugees.
They carry fake UNHCR cards to move around the country, get jobs and escape deportation.

Department enforcement division deputy assistant director Mohamad Zaidi Che Morad said syndicates involved in falsifying documents had found a good demand for the fake UNHCR cards.

"The cards are believed to have been produced by the syndicates in a few states and sold to the illegal immigrants," he said yesterday.

Zaidi said the department detected the tactic after confiscating a number of fake UNHCR cards in a series of operations held since last year.

"Syndicate members produce the cards based on demand from illegal immigrants, especially those from Myanmar and Bangladesh.

"The foreigners will carry the cards and pretend that they are refugees while working in this country."

In the latest case, Zaidi said, the department found a Myanmar who produced a fake UNHCR card when asked for his work permit and travel document last week.

"The Myanmar was arrested along with 23 other illegal immigrants for various offences under the Immigration Act.

"In the same operation, we also arrested eight Pakistanis for misusing their permits by working as petty traders, instead of working at construction sites."

Two young Rohingya migrants have died in the past three months in a detention camp in southern Thailand, the Bangkok English-language daily newspaper, The Nation, reported on Tuesday.

The Ranong camp, near Thailand’s southern border with Burma, is holding 55 Rohingya illegal migrants who were arrested on the Thai coast in January after they fled in open boats from Burma. Thai authorities allowed the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to visit the camp in January and February but have not granted access since then.

KUALA LUMPUR, 18 February 2009 (UNHCR) – New UNHCR Representative Alan Vernon met with some 50 refugee group representatives, here on Friday. This marks his first large-scale public meeting with these communities since becoming head of the UNHCR Office in Malaysia four months ago.

In his address, Alan Vernon assured refugee communities of greater dialogue and cooperation between them and his Agency in order to find solutions to the issues and concerns they face.

“UNHCR values your role as leaders. Not only do you help organise your communities so that the members can better help themselves, but you represent their concerns to organisations like UNHCR,” said Vernon to the group. “We hope to continue this meaningful dialogue with you.”

Unlike smaller community meetings held in the past, this consultation demarked itself by involving individuals from many different communities.

“What was most significant about this meeting, was the fact that refugees of several nationalities and ethnic groups came together to discuss their concerns,” said Vernon. “Not only were there representatives from most of the Myanmar refugee communities, for the first time there were also representation from the Somali and Sri Lankan groups.”

“For me, this meeting was a good way of getting to know the representatives of the refugee groups we interact with on a daily basis,” said Vernon. “It was also an opportunity for community leaders to voice their concerns to us and share information with other refugee groups.”

Sri Lankan refugee Ravindran, a representative from the Society for Displaced Refugees, described the event as being very useful.

“We don’t always know if our messages are being passed on to the Representative,” he said. “Here is a face to face chance with officials; we know that we’re being understood.”

These feeling were echoed by L Mya Yin, a community leader from the Organization of Karenni Development. She explained that participating in such a forum made her want to connect with non-Myanmar communities to better understand the larger refugee situation in Malaysia and what else could be done.

“I’m interested in contacting other communities so we can exchange. I wonder if they have the same problems as us? Does RELA cause them as many problems, what do they do to stop it?”

Responding to questions with his customary candidness, Vernon explained that UNHCR was working to improve the conditions of refugees in Malaysia, but that outside factors often prevented a quick resolution of problems.

“We are continuously working to prevent arrests, to regularize status of refugees and to speed up the registration process,” said Vernon. “In regard to registration, for example, over 17,000 new cases were registered last year. That’s a 23 percent increase over the previous year. We expect the same in 2009.”

The UNHCR head concluded by addressing the often contentious subject of resettlement. He explained that UNHCR would pursue all new possibilities to expand the programme, but asked for understanding and patience regarding the likelihood of significant improvements in the short term.

“The reality is that we resettled 6,000 people last year, which is roughly 10 percent of the global resettlement number in 2008,” said Vernon. “I would like to be able to say that everyone who wants to be resettled will be. But the reality is that we can’t do that. What we can do, however, is work with you and with other partners to help improve your lives while you are here.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, MRS News:20 July 2009
(UNHCR) – With the wrap-up of a selection mission to Malaysia this week, the Czech Republic is on its way to becoming the first former Eastern Bloc nation to become a resettlement country for refugees.
Henrik Nordentoft, acting UNHCR representative in Malaysia, said that while the Czechs have a history of receiving refugees, this is the first time a resettlement programme is being formalized where the Czech government selects refugees to start a new life in the country. The small Central European country is initially to take about two dozen Myanmar refugees from Malaysia.
“The Czech Republic joins a small group of countries who offer resettlement to refugees and UNHCR is grateful to the Czech Republic for responding to our call to countries to offer this vital assistance to refugees,” added Nordentoft. “For many refugees, being offered a new home in another country can mean the difference between life and death. It offers refugees both protection and a lasting solution to their plight.”
A Czech delegation is completing a mission to Kuala Lumpur to interview some 40 refugees for selection and to provide cultural orientation. The Czech pilot programme is aimed at helping vulnerable refugees, so top consideration was given to survivors of trauma, refugees with serious medical problems, or protection needs.
“This pilot resettlement programme is part of the Czech Republic’s foreign policy, providing humanitarian assistance where it can make a positive impact,” said Katerina Stehlikova, head of the delegation from the Czech Ministry of Interior.
“We wish to start small with this pilot initiative, and after evaluating its implementation, we will be able to consider further expanding it to include larger numbers of refugees and those hosted by other countries in this region,” she said.
Becoming a resettlement country is yet another milestone for the Czech Republic, which emerged from decades of isolation under Soviet domination as part of Czechoslovakia less than 20 years ago. Born as a new nation in 1993, the Czech Republic joined the European Union in 2004.
The Czech Republic joins the ranks of some 19 countries worldwide that open their doors annually to refugees through formal resettlement programmes, and is the eighth European Union country to have established such a programme. Some 70,000 refugees are accepted for resettlement worldwide every year.
Although this is the first time a group of refugees from Myanmar will be resettled to the Czech Republic, Stehlikova did not think that integration would be a significant problem. She said many Asians – from Vietnam, Mongolia, China and even Myanmar – were already living in the country and have been accepted by the local population.
The Czech government also has social and welfare assistance programmes to help the new residents settle in, with the help of previous Myanmar arrivals.
Currently in Malaysia there are some 40,900 refugees and asylum seekers registered with UNHCR. The majority are from Myanmar, having fled persecution and widespread human rights abuses in the country.
By Yante Ismail in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Story date: 24 July 2008 UNHCR News Stories

Kuala Lumpur, 17 October (UNHCR) - Hundreds of refugees and asylum-seekers arriving at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) office in Kuala Lumpur today were pleasantly surprised. They had come to UNHCR for registration, refugee status determination and various other processes, and were unexpectedly greeted with cheery balloons and an appetising lunch spread.

The staff of UNHCR Kuala Lumpur had decided to throw a party for them in celebration of the Eid ul-Fitr, a Muslim holiday marking the end of the Islamic holy month of fasting.

“We wanted to do this for the refugees. We are fortunate to be able to celebrate festivities in a lavish manner, when the refugees have so little,” said Angeline Stephen, a staff of the Registration unit. “Staff contributed money to buy the treats and we are excited to be able to share this with the refugees.”

A refugee from Myanmar of Chin ethnic origin, Thawng Kin Sui was visibly moved by the gesture.

“In Myanmar we don’t have enough food, and people don’t share with us. We’re so thankful that someone gave us food,” she said. “We want to cry, we are so grateful.”

Being in the front line of UNHCR’s administrative processes, the Registration unit sees some 400 refugees and asylum-seekers every day.

“During the work day, staff are in close proximity with refugees, they hear the stories that the refugees tell and they are touched by the pain that the refugees have gone through,” said Mikaeel Abdullah from the Registration unit. “This is our way of giving something to the refugees to show them that we care, and that we appreciate them.”

“I was very happy and very surprised. Everyone was enjoying it. If it happened more often, everyone would be happy all the time,” said Bamis, a Myanmar Muslim refugee.

Currently in Malaysia there are some 42,800 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR. The majority are from Myanmar, having fled persecution and widespread human rights abuses in the country.

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First free clinic for refugee in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
MRS News : Feb/05/2009
More than 300 women lined up to see doctors on the opening weekend of a UNHCR-funded center for refugee women in Kuala Lumpur.

Volunteers turning up at dawn on Sunday to run the half-day clinic – organized by the UN refugee agency with funding from the private Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society of Malaysia (OGSM) and the IS Puvan OBGYN Foundation – were amazed to see dozens of women waiting for the medics.

One volunteer said, "We were taken aback. We'd never seen this before at any of our other clinics. It was only 6.00am and at least 50 refugee women were already there."

30 percent of the 37,000 UNHCR-registered refugees in and asylum seekers Kuala Lumpur are women.

MRS (Reuters) - A group of Australian Aborigines asked the United Nations Wednesday for refugee status, claiming special emergency laws to curb alcohol and sexual abuse in the remote outback have turned them into outcasts at home.

Richard Downs, a spokesperson for the 4,000-strong Alyawarra people in central Australia, said the request was given to James Anaya, the United Nations special rapporteur on indigenous human rights, during a fact-finding tour to Australia.

"We've got no say at all. We feel like an outcast in our community, refugees in our own country," Downs told state radio.

A letter given to Anaya, in Australia at the invitation of the center-left government to examine a so-called "intervention" by police and soldiers in the Northern Territory two years ago, asked the UN to list the Alyawarra as internally displaced.

The intervention, launched by the former conservative government in June 2007 to stamp out widespread child sex abuse, fueled by chronic alcoholism from "rivers of grog" in indigenous communities, had taken away indigenous rights, Downs said.

Australia's 460,000 Aborigines make up about 2 percent of the population. They suffer higher rates of unemployment, substance abuse and domestic violence, and have a life expectancy 17 years shorter than other Australians.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made indigenous affairs a priority of his government, winning praise for apologizing in parliament for historic injustices against Aborigines.

CHILD SEX ABUSE

Rudd has said he would continue the controversial intervention but review the way it operates, including an invitation for Anaya to visit remote settlements in a first-ever UN fact-finding mission, long opposed by Rudd's predecessor, John Howard.

Howard ordered the intervention in the final months of his 11-and-a-half years in office, declaring the widespread sexual abuse of Aboriginal children to be a national emergency.

Anaya has received hundreds of submissions and letters during his two-week visit to Aboriginal communities across the Northern Territory and other parts of Australia, to be followed by a report back to the UN Human Rights Council.

An Australian-based spokeswoman for the United Nations said Anaya, a U.S. law professor and human rights advocate, would not comment on individual submissions.

Downs said the letter followed a protest last month in Ampilatwatja, 300 kms (186 miles) northeast of Alice Springs, when about 100 people walked off their land in protest against poor living conditions in government-owned houses.

Under the intervention, extra police, soldiers and medical teams were sent to Aboriginal communities, where alcohol and pornography were banned and welfare payments were quarantined to make sure the money is spent on food, clothing and health care.

An independent review last year found the intervention affected 45,500 Aboriginal men, women and children in more than 500 Northern Territory communities, and progress on health care and security were undermined by a lack of full community support.