ARAKANLAND
About over 1500 Arakanese refugees in Malaysia have received the registration as the primary protection from UNHCR, said according to the Arakanese refugees' sources.
The source said that UNHCR's Regional Office has provided the registration over 5,000 refugees including Arakanese refugees from Burma during the last week of August (24, 25, and 26).
There are officially recognized 1000 Arakanese refugees have approved by UNHCR before 2009. However, UNHCR did not determine refugee status any more Arakanese and Burmese who are practicing in Buddhist religion. And they were discriminated due to reasons of race, religion and nationality by UNHCR in 2009-2010. This was absolutely violated the UNHCR's principles.
The 1951 Refugee Convention establishing UNHCR spells out that a refugee is someone who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country."
At this critical time and condition, Arakanese National Leaders Dr. Aye Kyaw ( Patron of ALD-Exile), U Tun Won (ALD-Exile) in 2009 and Dr Aye Chan in 2010, a well known Arakanese scholar went to discuss with the regional officer of UNHCR in Malaysia. During the meeting, they spoke out to UNHCR's officer about their concern that Arakanese Buddhist refugees who were faced to discriminate by UNHCR.
And there was zero tolerance among the Arakanese refugees, AAR made and led the demonstration in front of the Regional Office of UNHCR in Malaysia on Monday, June 7, 2010. There were participating about sixty Arakanese refugees shown to their concern, getting to protection from UNHCR.
U Kyaw Won, an Arakanese refugee, said that UNHCR in Malaysia has accepted to register the all Arakanese refugees without any discrimination and it has continued to process, determine refugee status, and provide documentation for individuals.
Posted at: 05:17 PM | Add Comment
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