Group gets green light to resume work in Myanmar after lockdown

PETALING JAYA: Medical aid group Mercy Malaysia says it is one of the few humanitarian NGOs given the green light to resume its work in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Its president Datuk Dr Ahmad Fai­zal Mohd Perdaus said the United Nations and all other aid groups in Rakhine were told to go into lockdown soon after violence broke out there on Aug 25.

All local staff and expatriates were not allowed to operate openly or channel aid, he added.

“However, on Thursday, Mercy Malaysia was granted access and permission to resume operations in Rakhine and we are one of the very few allowed to do so.

“Many other organisations are still in lockdown mode,” he said yesterday.

In Rakhine, Mercy Malaysia runs mobile and static clinics offering primary healthcare and reproductive health services, and carries out repair and reconstruction work.

Dr Ahmad Faizal said Myanmar authorities did not allow aid groups, including Mercy Malaysia, to reveal details about their operations, such as the number of staff and volunteers on the ground and their exact locations.

“What I can say is that our teams are secure, safe and able to perform their duties, with the added requirement of being more vigilant.

“This signifies the trust that Mercy Malaysia has built over the years with the authorities as well as the affected communities,” he said, adding that Mercy Malaysia has re-opened its mobile clinics in Rakhine near areas where most of the violence took place.

Dr Ahmad Faizal said Mercy Malaysia had also deployed a team to Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar, where many Rohingya fled to escape the violence, to assess their needs.

“We expect an increase in the plea for aid for the Rohingya in Rakhine and also in Bangladesh where many fled,” he said, urging the public to donate cash to Mercy Malaysia and other NGOs working to help the victims.