It said many of the approximately 150,000 Rohingya who live in Malaysia came here hoping to be relocated to other countries through UNHCR programmes, but that some of them made Malaysia their home.

This, it said, was despite the fact that they have no legal status and, as a result, face many hardships.

Many Rohingya refugee children are born in Malaysia, and remain stateless owing to the undocumented status of their parents, the report said. Some of them are even second generation Malaysian-born.

It quoted Chia Wei, founder of The Berani Project, as saying the main consequences of this undefined status and lack of identification documents was that the children were cut off from the basic child’s rights to education and healthcare.

The Berani Project is a social enterprise advocating and creating opportunities for the Rohingya communities and other marginalised people in Kuala Lumpur.

Wei said many children were forced to work from a young age to help their families.

The report quoted Ustaz Rafik, a leader of the Rohingya community in Selayang, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, as saying that as most Rohingya were undocumented, they lived in fear of being detained, arrested or deported.

“The thought of risks like being harassed, abducted, detained, will discourage the parents from sending their children to school,” he said.

As a result Rohingya refugee children spend their childhood in their neighbourhoods, and almost never leave their community.

The children attend community schools funded by donations, where they learn about religion, the Malay language, and other literacy basic skills. Some of the schools offer longer daily schedules to help parents who work, according to the Al-Jazeera report.

The report was accompanied by many pictures depicting the life of these refugees in Malaysia.