Tuesday, 20 October 2009

Govt urged to provide guidelines on treatment of refugees

THE Government has been urged to provide clear-cut guidelines for refugees staying in the country pending registration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Member of parliament for Bakri Er Teck Hwa said the government should find ways to help the refugees to survive during their temporary stay.

He said there were no guidelines which allowed the refugees to seek temporary employment and shelter while they were in Malaysia.

"The government should conduct in-depth studies on the refugees and offer them the means to survive since they have been granted permission to stay in the country temporarily.

"Of late, I have been approached by hawkers who sympathise with them and agreed to offer them temporary jobs.

"However, they were afraid to do so as their kind gesture could contravene the country's laws.

"The government must do something fast before the growing number of unemployed refugees create social problems," he said at his Jalan Sakih service centre here recently.

Er said Myanmar refugees were given identity cards issued by the Alliance of Chin Refugees for one year.

The identity card is similar in size to the Malaysian identity card.

It states clearly that the Myanmars are refugees waiting for registration with the UNHCR.

The Star: JohorBuzz

2 comments:

  1. any more posts coming ?

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  2. probably. Will keep the blog update when I have time. Thank you for visiting my blog.

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