Rights activists say it is not only morally right for the government to allow refugees to work, but it is also economically wise as refugees do not send back money to their home country unlike the other foreign workers.
Tenaganita, which for decades has called for better treatment of foreign workers in the country, said the public should understand the plight of refugees, adding that they were forced to leave their countries.
“They have no place to go. On paper refugees are supposed to only be here temporarily, but the situation in their homeland has remained unchanged for decades,” said Tenaganita executive director Glorene Das.
She was responding to MTUC’s call not to allow refugees to work even if they are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
“They are not here to work. They are only here because of Malaysia’s humanitarian platform to host them. Malaysia is not a member of the 1951 Refugee Convention and because of that, the UN does not allocate funds to Malaysia to support the refugees,” MTUC president Abdul Halim Mansor told FMT yesterday.
There are 149,100 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR in Malaysia as of June 30 last year.
Glorene said Malaysia should provide refugees basic human rights, including access to work and education.
She said when refugees were forced to work illegally, they became easy target of abuse by their employers.
“The children, on the other hand, have no place to go and are unable to improve their knowledge and skills, and this could lead to more social issues,” she added.
Glorene said it was in Malaysia’s favour if the existing refugees were allowed to work, instead of bringing in more foreign workers.
“Once they can earn an income legally or gain new skills, they can contribute to the country instead of barely surviving like they do now.”
Klang MP Charles Santiago said refugees should be considered as interim workers as the country tries to decrease blue-collar migrant workers.
He said among the refugees were professionals such as scientists and IT experts.
But another benefit of allowing refugees to fulfill Malaysia’s demands for labour is they would not result in a cash outflow.
“Refugees do not repatriate money out of the country like migrant workers,” said Charles.