KINIGUIDE | Malaysia is host to over 182,000 refugees and asylum seekers from 50 countries including Myanmar, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iran.
Despite the significant number of refugees in the country, Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 protocol related to the convention. This makes all refugees and asylum seekers “illegal immigrants” under immigration laws.
The plight of refugees puts successive Malaysian governments under criticism from local and international human rights groups, pushing for a long-awaited recognition of refugees in the country.
Last May, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi hinted at a potential agreement to manage the situation of refugees in the country, which may finally achieve a form of recognition for refugees and asylum seekers.
In this KiniGuide, we look at the most common misconception and misinformation about refugees in Malaysia and look at the facts and data behind it.
Who is a refugee?
According to the United Nations, a refugee is someone forced to flee their home country because of persecution, war, or violence.
This includes fear of persecution for being a certain ethnicity, tribe or religion, their political opinion, their sexuality, or membership in certain social groups.
Sometimes, a refugee is also referred to as an asylum seeker. This usually refers to someone who is seeking asylum in a country but whose reasons for seeking asylum have not yet been verified.
Those who flee a part of their country to another due to internal conflict are referred to as internally displaced persons.
What rights does a refugee have?
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights applies to every human being, including refugees.
The definition of a refugee and the legal obligations of host nations to protect them are spelled out in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 Protocol.
Some 149 countries are party to one or both of these conventions but Malaysia is not.
This means in Malaysia, refugees who do not have valid visas are deemed “illegal immigrants” and are denied basic rights like employment or schooling.
Is Malaysia obliged to protect refugees?
Although Malaysia is not party to those conventions, the country is obliged to adhere to international customary law on human rights, said the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
This means not deporting refugees to the countries from which they fled, an act known as refoulement.
However, Malaysia has knowingly deported refugees to their home countries because, under its immigration laws, refugees are treated simply as illegal immigrants.
Malaysia is also obliged to protect the human rights of everyone in its territory, including refugees, said the UNHCR.
To note, Malaysia is currently a member of the UN Human Rights Council.
If the government isn’t protecting refugees, who is?
The UNHCR is the main international organisation handling refugees in Malaysia.
Contrary to popular perception, refugees do not get a regular stipend or direct assistance from UNHCR.
Instead, the UNHCR’s role is to process asylum applications and issue UNHCR cards to those whose refugee status is verified. It then works to resettle the refugees in a third country.
It also works with local NGOs to create income-generating projects to assist refugees, who are entirely self-reliant.
“What many people do not realise is that the cost of protecting and assisting refugees in the country is largely borne by the refugee communities themselves,” Yante Ismail, UNHCR’s spokesperson in Kuala Lumpur, told Malaysiakini.
“Refugees take care of their own basic needs – including addressing the healthcare, education, and shelter needs of their own families – often through their own communities’ social welfare arrangements,” she added.
Does the government provide any help to refugees?
The Malaysian government does not offer any type of financial aid or support to refugees, who are considered “illegal immigrants” according to immigration law.
Initiatives to offer limited access to refugees in education are always funded by foreign governments or private organisations.
This includes the recent initiative to allow Rohingya refugees to study at the International Islamic University of Malaysia through a grant from the Qatar Fund for Development.
While the UNHCR card provides a 50 percent discount on foreign fees for refugees receiving treatment at public hospitals, it does not offer any other financial benefits beyond that.
Whether it’s UNHCR or the government, refugees do not receive any regular financial aid and they have to depend on irregular jobs and informal work that puts them at many risks.
Why come to Malaysia despite poor living conditions?
Refugees are pushed away from their countries due to war, violence, and persecution. Therefore, the claim that they have a “choice” when they leave is a misleading concept.
Going to a certain country is related to so many factors, mostly geographic proximity.
According to the UNHCR, 1.3 million people left Myanmar as refugees. Around 89 percent stay in two neighbouring countries, Bangladesh and Malaysia.
Bangladesh hosts over 900,000 Rohingya refugees in the Cox’s Bazar region, while Malaysia hosts over 158,500 refugees from Myanmar.
Another example is the Syrian refugee crisis, which saw over 6.8 million Syrians forced to leave the country due to war, with around 5.2 million staying in three neighbouring countries - Turkiye, Lebanon, and Jordan. Malaysia hosts only 2,680 Syrian refugees.
Free Movement, a UK organisation assisting refugees, said although refugees are not obliged in the refugee convention to seek asylum in the first safe country they get to, most do so.
Why not other Southeast Asian countries?
Malaysian officials have cited different reasons that “attract” refugees to Malaysia such as the inability to deport Rohingya refugees.
However, officials often do not talk about the biggest push factor that forces refugees out of their countries, which is war and violence.
Malaysia is host to 158,500 refugees from Myanmar, where violence against minorities continues to force refugees to seek safer places to live in the region.
A refugee rights activist told Malaysiakini on condition of anonymity that those who flee from the country due to violence don’t have any choice in the matter.
One of the few routes to safety is to get to Bangladesh or Malaysia, which are considered relatively safer than other countries in the region, including neighbouring Thailand, the activist said.
“Thailand is not a safe place for refugees from Myanmar as it is infamous for deporting refugees back to face death and torture.”
Asylum Access Malaysia executive director Hui Ying Tham said, when speaking about refugees in Malaysia, the conversation often goes to the “illusion of choice”. But this, she said, is a “trap”.
“I think we should push back against these different narratives of why refugees choose to come here and focus more on how to provide a human rights approach to their situation,” she said.
How do refugees affect the economy?
For many years, refugees have been described as a “burden” for Malaysia despite the government not carrying any logistic or financial responsibility to formalise their situation in the country.
But facts and research show otherwise. A study by UNHCR found that 60 percent of adult refugees in Malaysia were employed, mostly in the informal sector which covered around 23 percent of total employment in the country in 2021.
But this informal employment puts refugees at much risk, such as forced labour, detention, and exploitation, the International Labour Organization found in its study in 2019.
Other studies found that allowing refugees to legally participate in the workforce could have very positive outcomes on the Malaysian economy.
A 2019 study by the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs in Malaysia showed that refugees could contribute over RM3 billion to the annual gross domestic product by 2024 if granted the right to work.
It also could create over 4,000 jobs for Malaysians.
This has happened in other countries that host refugees, like Turkiye, which has the largest refugee population in the world.A survey by the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkiye showed that businesses founded by Syrian refugees provided jobs for at least 7 percent of their 3.6 million compatriots in the country.
Syrians in Turkiye also founded over 10,000 companies since 2011, with 59.4 percent being successful business owners, according to the survey. More than 250,000 Syrians benefit from refugee-driven businesses in the country.
However, this reality was not enough to stop the anti-refugee propaganda in Turkiye, leading to violence against them and en-masse deportations after the latest elections.
How long will refugees stay in Malaysia?
This depends on two main deciding factors, safe repatriation and resettlement.
The return of refugees to their countries is strictly regulated by international law and is prohibited if there is no guarantee of safety and a dignified return for refugees and asylum seekers. This is not an option for most refugees in Malaysia.
Refugees from Myanmar cannot go back without facing the danger of persecution, torture, and death. Since the military coup in 2021, independent organisations documented the death of thousands of civilians in the country.
Last June, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said reports had surfaced that Bangladeshi authorities are using “deceptive and coercive measures” to compel Rohingya refugees to return to Myanmar.
“Conditions in Myanmar are anything but conducive for the safe, dignified, sustainable, and voluntary return of Rohingya refugees,” he said in a statement.
Last year, Malaysia deported 150 asylum seekers from Myanmar, including six former navy officers, despite criticism from human rights organisations.
At least one officer, Kyaw Hla, and his wife, Htay Htay Yee, were detained upon arrival back in Myanmar’s main city of Yangon, Reuters reported.
Returning Syrian refugees also face grave threats such as death, torture, sexual violence, and enforced disappearance.
In 2021, Amnesty International documented 24 cases of men, women, and children returnees who were subjected to rape or other forms of sexual violence, arbitrary detention and/or torture, or other ill-treatment upon return.
How likely will refugees in Malaysia be resettled elsewhere?
The current impossibility of safe return for refugees from Malaysia leaves them with only one long-term solution, resettlement.
The United Nations defines resettlement as the transfer of refugees from an asylum country to another state that has agreed to admit them and ultimately grant them permanent residence.
However, this solution is very complicated and requires facilitation from multiple private and government agencies in multiple states. Resettlements are prioritised based on individual assessments.
UNHCR Malaysia told Malaysiakini that 94,800 refugees have been resettled from Malaysia since March 2008.
In 2022, only 3,080 refugees were resettled from Malaysia. This is only 1.69 percent of all refugees in the country, but is still higher than the global resettlement rate of 1 percent.
Without the possibility of a safe and dignified return or a faster resettlement process, refugees have no choice but to stay in Malaysia despite their plight caused by the lack of legal recognition.
Only a sustainable legal framework initiated by the government to formalise their situation and restore their basic human rights will be able to provide a durable solution to the case of refugees in Malaysia.
WAEL QARSSIFI is a journalist and fellow of Migration + Tech Monitor, which monitors how migrants are affected by border technologies. This article was produced as part of the fellowship.