By NNN-Bernama,
Kuala Lumpur : 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 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 (Lower House) , here, today.
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.