Work with UNHCR, not against to settle mounting refugee issues, activists urge govt

SHAH ALAM - A human rights activist says the government has no expertise nor knowledge to handle refugees and should leave the matter to experts.

This comes after lawyer Norman Fernandez recently said the government should be the only ones responsible to issue refugee cards or documents, and not other agencies, including United Nations High Commission For Refugees (UNHCR).

However, Human Rights and Good Governance activist K Sudhagaran Stanley Singh said UNHCR has vast resources, knowledge and experience in determining if a person is a refugee.

“They have an extremely strict process that goes through many rounds of interviews with applicants,” he told Sinar Daily.

Commenting further, he said an asylum seeker that wants to be recognised as a refugee needs to go through countless rounds of interviews before a UNHCR card is issued.

“Currently, even with UNHCR cards, refugees are not allowed to work, not allowed to register their children into government schools. This is a major issue. If they work, they or their employers can be arrested and this results in many of them working in informal sectors to sustain themselves and live in extreme poverty.

“Their children are not allowed to go to schools and this creates a generation of illiterate children with no future,” Stanley Singh said.

Therefore, he said it would be better for government to work closely with the UNHCR.

“Currently there is no law that governs refugees and because of this, refugees automatically are regarded as undocumented migrants under the eyes of the law,” he said.

Weighing on the same issue, former Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) commissioner Jerald Joseph said it would be dangerous if it is solely left in the hands of the government.

He said UNHCR, a body mandated by the United Nations has the competency to verify claims by asylum seekers and have sufficient information for the reasons a person might need to flee his country.

“A claim must also be verified independently because Malaysia has friendly ties with many governments and some have economic and political interests,” he said when contacted by Sinar Daily.

He added no system is 100 per cent fail-safe but if there is an error, the UNHCR will check and upgrade its information and determine if the original claim is still valid.

Adding to his statement, he said the community needs to start accepting the reality that there would be refugees from neighbouring countries and a multilateral approach is needed to solve the root cause of displacement and find solutions for refugees.

“Until the original cause of people fleeing the country is resolved, many will still try to run across borders to other countries.