KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia should be deciding for itself who qualifies as a refugee and not the United Nations refugee agency, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
He agreed that firm action was needed to end the practice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issuing cards to refugees in the country.
“We must manage our own affairs, rather than letting outside officials decide who qualifies and who doesn’t,” he said during Prime Minister’s Question Time.
Anwar was replying to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin (PN-Larut), who asked how the government planned to stop the UNHCR from issuing the cards so that Putrajaya could issue them instead.
Hamzah said Malaysia had not signed the Refugee Convention, yet the UNHCR remained in the country and continued to issue cards that allowed holders to work.
Anwar said the UNHCR’s presence was a legacy issue, as the agency had been allowed to operate here with the consent of the then government of the day.
Amending the rules, as the Home Ministry had recently begun doing, required negotiations with the UN to ensure Malaysia would not be seen as sidelining international rules, he said.
“This is a legacy. Larut knows this too from his time at the Home Ministry,” Anwar added.
Hamzah was Home Minister from 2020 to 2022.
Anwar said Myanmar nationals from other ethnic groups, including Chin, Mon, Karen and Shan, numbered between 60,000 and 70,000, and had the same status as the Rohingya.
The arrival of the Rohingya was not new, he said, adding that while Malaysia had helped them, the solution now was to send them home.
He said Malaysia would keep engaging Myanmar and would not follow the United States or the European Union in refusing to negotiate with the country.
“If this is not tackled, it will spread and become a serious security problem,” he said.
Earlier, Anwar said the repatriation of Myanmar nationals from Malaysia was not limited to the Rohingya community, as it covered various ethnic groups.
Anwar also said that more than 10,000 Myanmar nationals had been returned since January this year.
“Any country that wants to bring back its citizens from our country, we welcome it,” he said.
He said Malaysia was the first country to successfully repatriate Myanmar detainees though negotiations and diplomatic approaches.
The Prime Minister said the repatriation process was carried out voluntarily, with the consent of the individuals involved and formalised through official Home Ministry documentation to ensure their safety and human rights.
