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Dear friends A friend of mine spend several months interviewing, documenting, and writing about the lives of refugees in Malaysia. It is a remarkable project. If you have time, do have a look at it, and forward the website address to anyone you know who is interested in the case of refugees in Malaysia. More information on his project is provided below. Best wishes Alice --------------------- Dear Sir/Madam My name is Aris Oziar. For the past three months I have been working on a website project called FiftyRefugees. As the name implies, it chronicles the story of 50 refugees who currently call Malaysia their home. Malaysia does not recognise the Geneva Refugee Convention, and partly as a result of this (we have other legal avenues to give them rights, such as IMM13 but the government has refused to act), Refugees in Malaysia who cross the border illegally or whose visa has lapsed are classified as Illegal Immigrants, subject to arrest and detention by the police, RELA and Immigration. They have restricted access to healthcare services and the children cannot go to government schools, effectively denying them education. As a Malaysian, I am outraged to hear their stories of Malaysia - 3 years of detention or living in makeshift jungle camps / jungle due to fear of arrest. Stories of a 6 year old girl whose last visit to town was 4 years ago (the mother is too afraid to bring her out), and her 55 year old father who eventually died because the police took all their money the one time they were desperate enough to go to the hospital to treat his illness. And of course, of the Malaysian immigration authorities dumping them across the border in Thailand, where they are rounded up by agents and either pay these agents to get back to Malaysia , or face slave labour - the men in fishing boats and the women, probably sold to the sex trade. I want people to know that refugees do exist in Malaysia . To know that they braved a dangerous journey to Malaysia to escape atrocities in their own country. To know that most of them live a marginal life, often exploited, almost always in fear. http://fiftyrefugees.wordpress.com/ Warmest regards [log in to unmask] ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Note: The material contained in this communication comes to you from the Forced Migration Discussion List which is moderated by the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), University of Oxford. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the RSC or the University. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this message please retain this disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. List archives are available at: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/forced-migration.html