Parliament: Over 90,000 Refugees In Malaysia

[Tg. GT]

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 (Bernama) -- There were 90,301 refugees in Malaysia
registered with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)
up to September this year.

Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk A. Kohilan Pillay said Malaysia
cooperated with the UNCHR and International Organisation for Migration
(IOM) in repatriating refugees to their countries of origin or
relocating them to a third country willing to accept them.

"Until now, 49,082 refugees have been sent to third countries, 68 per
cent of them through the UNHCR and 32 per cent through IOM," he said in
his reply to a question from Hamim Samuri (BN-Ledang) in the Dewan
Rakyat, here, Thursday.

Kohilan said issues related to refugees had not been raised by the
source countries like Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand
during their bilateral talks with Malaysia.

"However, their embassies here would always assist in the documentation
process for refugees to be relocatd to third countries," he said.

To a supplementary question from M. Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat) on
claims that the Malaysian government allowed the exploitatiion of
refugees, Kohilan said the UNHCR and IOM were responsible for looking
after the registered refugees.

However, he said, Malaysia also assisted in terms of medical aid and educational programmes for them.

He said as there were no special laws for refugees in this country,
issues involving them came under the Immigration Act 1959/63 and that
refugees were considered as illegal immigrants.

-- BERNAMA