RI refugees allowed work in Malaysia<\/p>\n
Malaysia, which cracked down on illegal foreign workers earlier
\nthis year, will let more than 40,000 refugees from Indonesia and
\nMyanmar work legally to help ease a labour shortage, a minister
\nsaid on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The unprecedented move follows an exodus of nearly 400,000
\nillegal foreign workers at the start of the year under an amnesty
\nfrom prosecution that caused some acute shortages of unskilled
\nlabour.<\/p>\n
\"We will absorb refugees that are registered with the UNHCR to
\nbe part of foreign worker source,\" Home Minister Azmi Khalid told
\nreporters after a Cabinet committee meeting.<\/p>\n
\"This will reduce the need to bring in foreign workers.\"<\/p>\n
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which last
\nmonth mooted the idea, welcomed the decision.<\/p>\n
\"It makes a lot of practical sense and it also demonstrates
\nMalaysia's humanitarian dedication,\" Volker Turk, representative
\nof the UN refugee agency in Malaysia, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Malaysia is home to an estimated 60,000 refugees, but just
\nover 40,000 are registered with the UNHCR.<\/p>\n
\"We are still in the process of registering the rest,\" Turk
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Of the total, about 20,000 are from Indonesia's Aceh, 10,000
\nare members of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority and another
\n10,000 are members of other Myanmar minority ethnic groups.<\/p>\n
Malaysia views refugees as illegal immigrants since the
\ncountry has yet to sign the 1951 Convention on the Status of
\nRefugees, which has been ratified by 145 nations.<\/p>\n
Last year, Malaysia agreed to let the Rohingyas stay
\ntemporarily. The Rohingyas came in the 1990s from Myanmar, but
\nYangon disputes their origin and refuses to let them return.<\/p>\n
Malaysia relies on foreign unskilled labour to do dirty,
\npoorly paid work that locals shun, but the number of illegal
\nimmigrants, estimated at 800,000 or more ahead of the amnesty,
\ncaused the government a fiscal and administrative headache.<\/p>\n
Their sudden departure earlier this year hit a range of
\nindustries such as the construction and plantation sectors,
\nleading to concerns among economists about the potential impact
\non economic growth and on inflation through higher wages. --
\nReuters<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ri-refugees-allowed-work-in-malaysia-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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