ASYLUM seekers in Malaysia are getting frustrated with the long wait to be resettled in a third country.

Some have waited for more than 15 years due to red tape. 

They told The Malaysian Insight that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) process of resettlement is not transparent.

A former Tamil Eelam militant who wished to be known as Thanujan said the situation has put him in danger. 

“I fled to Malaysia due to the threats and danger in Sri Lanka following my involvement in Tamil Eelam 15 years ago,” he said.

“After going through the interview, I was immediately given a UNHCR card identifying me as being at risk of danger should I be returned to my home country.

“Since then, I have been interviewed by UNHCR for resettlement several times but until today, there are no results,” said Thanujan, 38.

“What exactly are UNHCR’s criteria for resettlement? I am tired of being refugee without a country, without protection.”

A Rohingya activist, who has faced harassment and death threats in his country and in Malaysia, pleaded for protection and resettlement.

Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani said he is not safe in Malaysia.

Zafar, who was driven out of Myanmar by the threat of violence, said he has waited three years now to be resettled to a third country.

He said many of his fellow countrymen had suffered a worse fate while living in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh. 

Some, including Rohingya activist Mohib Ullah, were killed, he added.

“The death would not have happened if Mohib had been resettled by UNHCR without delay. 

“It is very painful to live in trauma, confinement and depression for three years. The reality is that I live in a prison without borders,” he said.

Zafar said he has had to endure constant threats and harassment. 

“But even all this isn’t enough to qualify me for protection and resettlement in a third country,” he said.

He said his situation became worse in 2021 after he was accused of demanding citizenship rights for Rohingya refugees.

“Since then, my family have received death threats, slander and harassment. I lost my dignity, life, family, friends, livelihood, freedom of movement, voice and my work,” said Myanmar Rohingya Ethnic Human Rights Organization in Malaysia president.

He said each time he made a complaint to the UNHCR, the agency continued to reject his application on the grounds that he did not meet the criteria.

“I wonder which criteria I do not meet. It hurts to hear this from UNHCR Malaysia, which is supposed to protect refugees at risk.

“I am poor. Is that why I am not considered for resettlement?”

Child soldiers

A Chin activist from Myanmar, James Bawi said refugees with connections are resettled more quickly.

“Those of us who are in the high-risk category find it difficult to get resettled, but for those who have connections, it’s easy,” he said.

Bawi said he was separated from his mother when he was six.

A few years after that, the state of Chin in Myanmar, where they lived, became increasingly unstable and filled with conflict.

“The Chin community is mostly Christian while the majority of Myanmar people are Buddhist. For decades, the Chin community faced forced assimilation which led to armed conflict.

“Boys as young as 11 were taken from the villages and forced to become child soldiers. If I were still in Myanmar, I would already have held a weapon,” said Bawi.

 He came to Malaysia illegally by boat in 2010. 

He said he took the dangerous journey in the hopes of living safely and peacefully.

Bawi said the asylum seekers live like exiles because Malaysia does not recognise refugees.

Malaysia is not signatory to the Convention on the Status of Refugees 1951 or the Protocol on the Status of Refugees 1967, which would compel it to provide humanitarian aid to refugees,

However, a 2019 campaign carried out by Bawi has enabled the UNHCR to maintain refugee status for the community.

“UNHCR previously stopped refugee protection for the Chin community based on a survey that our former home land is safe to return,” he said.

The decision changed after news reports showed otherwise, said Bawi, who coordinates education and medical services for the Chin community in Malaysia. – May 22, 2023.