Arakan News Agency
A U.N. agency said Wednesday it would cooperate with Malaysia over concerns that Islamic State (IS) militants might be mixing in with foreigners and asylum seekers who claim refugee status in the country.
But the Kuala Lumpur office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stopped short of saying whether it had agreed to share its database of some 150,000 refugees who are registered in the country and carry U.N. refugee cards.
“We are fully committed in our cooperation with the government to find ways that better protect refugees, which, at the same time, address any legitimate concerns about security, law and order,” the agency said in a statement.
It said it would work closely with the Ministry of Home Affairs by offering advice and assistance to a contracted company tasked with implementing a program to vet thousands of refugees who hold cards issued by UNHCR.
The local office of UNHCR issued the statement two days after Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed expressed concern that IS militants and sympathizers may have obtained the refugee cards that allow them to move freely about the country.
‘Baseless’ statements
The comments by Nur Jazlan angered rights activists and humanitarian-aid workers.
Sharifah Shakirah, founder and director of the Rohingya Women Development Network, said the deputy home minister should be careful when making statements linking refugees with IS.
“Why do they need a UNHCR [Refugee Card] at first when they could obtain passports to enter Malaysia and freely travel around the world?” Sharifah, a Rohingya refugee, told BenarNews.
Lawyer Nurainie Haziqah, secretary-general of a local humanitarian aid group, said Nur Jazlan’s statements about potential IS links to refugees were baseless.
“Instead of working together with UNHCR, instead of working for policies and laws to help the refugees in Malaysia, they choose to make such accusations,” she told BenarNews.
Malaysia, which shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and sea borders with Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia, has about 32 million residents, including almost 1.8 million legally registered foreign workers and about 2 million undocumented immigrants.
Since July 1, more than 5,500 foreigners have been entangled in a massive crackdown on illegal immigration.
Source : Benarnews
