Myanmar refugees in Malaysia face new registration regime

Guest contributor

Seán Donal Barry

Myanmar refugees in Malaysia face growing uncertainty as a UN refugee agency documentation process is challenged by a new Malaysian initiative during ongoing refugee deportations.

In the stairwell of a four-storey building in Kuala Lumpur’s Pudu district, James Bawi Thang Bik, the chairperson of the Alliance of Chin Refugees (ACR), points to a notice stuck on the wall at the entrance of a school classroom.

“This is the only protection we have in Malaysia,” James told DVB. Rather than legal protection, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) letter offers recognition of the learning centre inside – an indirect plea for restraint from the Malaysian immigration authorities, which have intensified raids, detentions and deportations over the last year.