Yesterday, home minister Hamzah Zainudin was reported as saying that the ministry will enforce the usage of the MyRC card, to be issued by the Tracking Refugees Information System (TRIS).
According to Berita Harian, the card will be used by authorities as the sole reference document, and not the card issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Hamzah was also quoted as saying that Malaysia did not need to recognise the UNHCR card since the country did not ratify the UN’s 1951 convention on refugees.
However, Klang MP Charles Santiago said UNHCR granted the cards to refugees after they had undergone a long, vigorous process, which was considered important by the countries that would accept resettled refugees.
“They (refugee-receiving countries) might not accept the Malaysian card (MyRC). So what is Malaysia going to do about it?” he told FMT.
Santiago also questioned whether the Malaysian government had the means to manage the refugee registration system under TRIS, which had been privatised to a company, and whether the personal information of the refugees was owned by the government or the company running the system.
Migrant rights activist Adrian Pereira of North-South Initiative (NSI) said the ministry’s move was nothing more than an ad hoc measure that did not solve the issue of managing refugees and asylum seekers in the country.
He also said it would be a waste of taxpayers’ funds since the government would have to fork out money to issue the MyRC card to the refugees.
“If Malaysia is really serious about managing the refugees and asylum seekers, it should have a law to address these communities and not rush into ad hoc solutions because government officials are not trained in refugee identification and screening of asylum seekers,” he told FMT.
“For me, it defeats the purpose of managing the whole refugee situation.”
Heidy Quah, a refugee rights activist from Refuge for the Refugees, said it was ridiculous for Putrajaya to insist on having the MyRC card instead of the UNHCR card as official recognition of refugees in the country.
Echoing Pereira, she said none of the government officials were trained on the refugee status determination process, and could not truly comprehend the plight of refugees in Malaysia.
“The refugee status determination process is a vigorous measure to determine whether or not a person seeking protection is considered a refugee under international, regional or national law,” she told FMT.
“Malaysia does not have the infrastructure or the resources for it,” she said.