Malaysia recognizes a stateless clan 
International Herald Tribune
April 23, 2005
Vaudine England 

KUALA LUMPUR History left them behind a half century ago. So did modern Asia during its "miracle" years. But about 10,000 long-stateless members of an ethnic group known as the Rohingya are about to find at least a temporary home.
 
The Malaysian government has decided to address a long-festering refugee problem involving the Rohingya to help solve the nation's desperate labor shortage. It announced in Kuala Lumpur recently that it will issue work permits to the 10,000 Rohingya within its borders.
 
The new policy marks a dramatic reversal of fortunes for the group. It also raises the prospect that Malaysia may address similar problems involving other ethnic groups of uncertain status residing within its borders.
 
The Rohingyas, who are Muslims from Myanmar, have lived illegally in Malaysia since the late 1980s. They have been subject to recurring cycles of arrests, beatings and deportations.
 
Deprived of citizenship when Myanmar gained independence from Britain in 1948, the Rohingyas have been shunted from one inhospitable Asian state to another for nearly 50 years.
 
Rohingya communities numbering in the tens of thousands have fled to Bangladesh, been forced back to persecution in Myanmar, then fled again, some to Malaysia. Because few of the states involved have signed the United Nations' Refugee Convention of 1951, the Rohingya remain stateless, unpopular candidates for resettlement.
 
Their Muslim faith has helped many Rohingyas to settle in predominantly Muslim regions of Malaysia, but their lack of rights and residency papers has kept them destitute. Treated as illegal immigrants and often uneducated and unskilled, some have become beggars.
 
But a longstanding labor problem in Malaysia is about to change that. The country is urgently seeking ways to solve a national labor shortage that is already having an effect on growth prospects for this year.
 
After an assault on illegal labor that resulted in the expulsion from Malaysia of more than 100,000 workers in recent months, new approaches to providing labor are being considered. Putting the Rohingya to work is seen as one answer.
 
Months of deliberations by the Malaysian government and talks with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have resulted in the decision to issue Temporary Stay Permits to the Rohingya population. The permits allow holders to work legally, and grant access to health care and education.
 
"We think they should be absorbed into the labor force," said the Malaysian home minister, Azmi Khalid. "We have to find ways to organize them because it will be a waste if they are here and we don't recognize them or we don't give them the opportunity."
 
Khalid added: "Like it or not, they are here; so it's better if we give them jobs rather than not and we have foreign workers anyway. So why can't we make them foreign workers too?"
 
His comments brought clarity to a confused situation following comments by another minister, Mohamad Nazri Abdul Aziz, in December 2004, that the Rohingya would be classified as refugees. No new policy was implemented, while the recent crackdown on illegal labor has heightened humanitarian concerns for the Rohingyas.
 
Diplomats and experts in refugee issues praised the latest decision as an innovative approach to two serious problems: the labor shortage and the difficult living conditions suffered by the Rohingya underclass.
 
As a relatively wealthy Asian country, Malaysia is eager to avoid being seen as a desirable destination for the dispossessed.
 
"It takes account of social realities on the ground, which exist, and which are better tackled than ignored," Volker Turk, a representative of the UN refugee commissioner in Malaysia, said in an interview.
 
"We are encouraged by the Home Minister's statement. We are going to work out the details of implementation in the coming weeks."
 
Turk and other regional diplomats agree that, in the context of refugee policies, the Malaysian decision is path-breaking. It involves recognition that prospects for resettlement of the Rohingyas in third countries such as the United States are almost nonexistent, and that many Rohingyas have made their homes in Malaysia, albeit illegally.
 
Last year, Thailand allowed Burmese who registered themselves before a deadline to gain the right to work temporarily in Thailand. Malaysia's new policy goes further, experts said.
 
"This decision refers to the existing refugee population and is a very positive, pragmatic response," Turk said.
 
He credits the Malaysian government's flexibility to the kinder, gentler administration of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, after the hardline policies of his predecessor, Mahathir Mohamed. The new approach required Turk to attend 55 meetings with ministers from the Home, Security, Justice, Immigration, Labor and other departments, between May and December of 2004 alone.
 
Seen in the light of the Malaysian government's on-again, off-again crackdown on illegal migrant labor, however, regularizing the Rohingyas is "a drop in the ocean," said Abdul Razak Baginda, executive director of the Malaysian Strategic Research Center, a research institute in Kuala Lumpur.
 
"This is part of the firefighting attitude of the Malaysian government in response to the labor shortage. It's an attempt to solve a refugee issue which has been a bit of a sticking point between Malaysia and Myanmar, but it shows the lack of a clear policy," Razak Baginda said.
 
Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians and other illegal Asian workers have been expelled or arrested in recent weeks. Malaysian industries have howled at the subsequent, inevitable shortage of workers. The shortfall is estimated at about half a million, and criticism of the government's labor policy has increased.
 
A recent decision to import tens of thousands of Pakistani workers could cause new problems, Razak Baginda warned, regarding national security and social assimilation.
 
He wonders if granting work permits to the Rohingyas will create a precedent whereby other marginalized refugee populations will also be regularized. Malaysia is home to small groups of Khmer from Cambodia, Chin Christians from Myanmar, Acehnese exiles from Indonesia and others.
 
"This decision probably kills two birds with one stone, but I like to look at the larger picture. Where is the steady supply of labor that we need?" he argued.
 
The crackdown on illegal labor has also resulted in the arrest of Rohingyas. Most of those later found in possession of a UNHCR letter recognizing their status as "persons of concern" were released, but many remain in detention despite their recognition by the United Nations.
 
Turk defines this as the largest, most pressing protection issue currently facing the Malaysian authorities. "I've written to the attorney general on this to explain the vulnerability of these refugees and to request some discretionary action on their behalf," he said.
 
Protests and hunger strikes by small groups of angry Rohingyas in March added to pressure for a solution. But for some Rohingya, the ability to work legally and win education rights for their children is not yet enough.
 
"At least it is better than nothing," Sujauddin Karimuddin, secretary of the National Council for Rohingyas, said. "But it's not citizenship. The permission to work can be withdrawn at any time."
 
"The most important thing is that we need status. We are stateless. We don't have any future," said Karimuddin, who has been arrested three times.
 
"When I leave home in the morning, I don't know if I will be returning home in the evening," said Karimuddin as he discussed his constant fear of arrest. "Most of us are jobless and suffering. We cannot do anything with our lives."

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