Pregnant refugee woman seeks protection in Malaysia: Kaowao News

Published August 20, 2007 by Kaowao News

Mon refugees in Malaysia are seeking protection following the recent raids on refugees and migrants in Kuala Lumpur .

According to Piung Chan, a social worker from Mon Refugee Organization (MRO) based in Kuala Lumpur , 33 Burmese nationals were arrested in the early morning hours on August 17, 2007. Those arrested included a group of 9 Mon nationals and Chin and Burmese asylum seekers as well.

Among those arrested is an eight-month pregnant woman, Ms. Mei Korn Thaw, who is recognized by the UNHCR office as a refugee and who is reportedly unwell. “Her unborn baby and the girl both are in poor health, she has an appointment to see the doctor on August 23,” said Piung Chan.

Myanmar activists call for a halt to refugee crackdown in Malaysia: IHT

From the International Herald Tribune

Published: August 6, 2007

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Some 150 U.N.-certified Myanmar refugees have been detained during weekend raids on illegal immigrants in Malaysia, a rights group said Monday, as it called for a a halt to the indiscriminate arrest of refugees.

The Myanmar refugees were among 550 immigrants hauled up in separate crackdowns by immigration officials and the volunteer security corps RELA in central Selangor state, said the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingyas Human Rights Organization in Malaysia.

Children and pregnant women were among the 150 detained, all of whom were recognized by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the group’s president, Zafar Ahmad, said in a statement.

Project Maje Report on Burmese Refugees in Malaysia

A new report, “We Built this City: Refugees from Burma at Risk in Malaysia” has been released by Project Maje. The report reveals the plight of refugees from Burma who have worked on Malaysia’s massive infrastructure projects but gained no gratitude for their labor. “We Built this City” highlights the persecution currently being inflicted on the refugees by a highly controversial government-sanctioned anti-immigrant vigilante force called Rela, which has been hunting down, beating, robbing and imprisoning foreigners in Malaysia. “We Built this City” includes background on the refugees in Malaysia, interviews with refugee construction workers from Burma’s Chin State, and links to articles on the Rela raids, as well as a letter writing action campaign.
“We Built this City: Refugees from Burma at Risk in Malaysia” can be found at www.projectmaje.org

Project Maje is an independent information project which has distributed information on Burma’s human rights and environmental issues since 1986.

Rela and Malaysia’s invisible war

Published 24 January, 2007 at Aliran

The volunteer corps’ crackdown on undocumented foreigners is not a war on terror; it is a war on defenceless migrants, observes Romany.

Like George W Bush’s ‘war on terror’ waged by the United States, an unseen, little-publicised ‘war on undocumented immigrants’ is being waged in Malaysia. This war, waged under cover of darkness, is hidden from public view and much information about it lands in the dead-news boxes of the editors of mainstream newspapers.

Keeping mum about brutal RELA raids

Published March 15th, 2006 at  Malaysia Media Monitors’ Diary

The senseless attack by RELA personnel on defenceless Indian migrant labourers waiting outside their own embassy for their problems to be sorted out by representatives of their home country is something that should be deeply embarrassing to Malaysians and the Malaysian government. It says so much about Malaysian attitudes towards foreigners, even those legally in the country. This is an announcement to the international community that we are ‘anti-foreigners’ – especially if they are not rich, professional, economically sound or from a G7 nation.

These downtrodden people had already been cheated out of their life-savings by unscrupulous conmen posing as employment agents, exploited by similarly conscienceless profiteering employers who feel no tinge of guilt at using what is little more than slave labour. And now, these honest but helpless workers have been further victimised by the authorities. Why have they been put into detention? What wrong have they done in seeking help from their High Commission officials?

Malaysia urged to stop rounding up Myanmar refugees: Khonumthung News

July 05, 2007

In an ardent appeal to the Malaysian government, the Chin Human Right Organization has urged it to call a halt to the crackdown on Myanmar refugees. Instead it has asked Malaysia to cooperate with the office of The United Nation High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) to protect the inherent rights of refugees and asylum seekers.

The Malaysian government is violating basic human rights by its relentless raids targeting the refugee community. To make matters worse there are reports of torture and abuse of hapless refugees in detention camps and consequent deportation, said CHRO’s urgent letter of appeal.