No safe harbour for refugees from Myanmar in Malaysia

Guest contributor

Isabelle Chong

The queue started forming before dawn. By 7 a.m. on a grey Tuesday in November, nearly 200 people lined the pavement outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a river of brightly coloured headscarves and worn jackets pressed shoulder to shoulder beneath a thicket of umbrellas.

Some stood alone, others came as entire families. The gates will not open for another hour, but positioning mattered: being closer to the front could mean speaking to an officer that day to obtain a UNHCR card – the only document standing between them and arrest, detention, or deportation – and going home empty-handed and returning tomorrow.

“Even if you have a document, you can’t come in illegally,” an officer steps outside to address the crowd.

Among them was *Mohamad Assar, a 19-year-old Rohingya refugee who arrived in Malaysia in April 2025. Without an appointment, he hoped someone might help expedite his application.