UN Refugee Agency Fears Malaysian Crackdown On Illegals May Affect Refugees
With Malaysia planning to pay bounties to officials taking part in a nationwide crackdown on illegal immigrants, the
United Nations refugee agency today expressed concern that thousands of genuine refugees and asylum seekers may be
wrongly caught in the detention and deportation net.
Of an estimated 28,000 refugees from Myanmar and Indonesia, hundreds live alongside illegal migrants in makeshift jungle
camps near the new administrative capital, Putrajaya, making them particularly vulnerable during the plan's
implementation, Jennifer Pagonis, a spokeswoman for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told
journalists in Geneva.
Having registered 600 refugees from Aceh, Indonesia, living in Malaysia's Penang, UNHCR was sending registration teams
to the jungle camps, but doubted that they could complete their work before the crackdown started on a yet unspecified
date, Ms. Pagonis said.
The Malaysian Government had assured UNHCR that refugees would not be swept up, but the operation apparently would
involve 500,000 volunteers who might not be fully informed about refugee protections.