Rohingyas are illegals, can’t make demands: Minister
Published on: Saturday, May 02, 2020
By: NST
Kuala Lumpur: Any organisations representing the Rohingya community in Malaysia are invalid by law and will face government action as the Registrar of Societies had never registered any such organisations, the Home Ministry said.It also reiterated that Malaysia does not recognise the community as refugees but merely “illegal immigrants”, even if they hold the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) identification cards, and therefore have no rights to make demands to Putrajaya.
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“Besides that, the Home Ministry’s checks found that the Registrar of Societies has never registered organisations under the name of Rohingya or any ethnic Rohingya in Malaysia.
“Therefore, any organisations that represent ethnic Rohingya in Malaysia are invalid under the Societies Act 1966 (Act 335) and can have taken action against them according to legal provisions,” Minister Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin (pic) said.
“Therefore UNHCR card holders from ethnic Rohingya have no status, right and basis to present any demands to the government,” it added.
Hamzah stressed that Malaysia was not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol, which meant that Putrajaya did not have a legal framework to manage the status and rights of refugees in the country.
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It followed the authorities’ move to push back boats carrying hundreds of Rohingya people fleeing Myanmar on the high seas.
Hamzah maintained that the decision to refuse these boats entry was to ensure the sovereignty of the country’s borders was not affected.
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“However, on the basis of humanity, Malaysian authorities had distributed food supplies to them before escorting these boats out of Malaysian waters,” he added.
Meanwhile, the three men believed to be from the Rohingya ethnic community who made a Facebook live session that insulted the Malay community, are residing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States.
Federal Criminal Investigation Department Director Datuk Huzir Mohamed said investigation showed the owner of the Facebook account under the username ‘Villan Vicky’ is a Rohingya with a history of staying in Malaysia.
“Police have opened an investigation paper to probe the live session (on Facebook) which showed the owner of the social media account challenging Malaysians using derogatory words.
“We have also launched a probe into a video that went viral in the social media, showing four people undergoing shooting exercise in which the suspects had also threatened to shoot anybody entering their area,” he said.
He said preliminary investigation showed a conversation between the three suspects and an unidentified person who had questioned why the group had criticised the Malays on Facebook during the live session.
“The live session has not only caused misunderstandings between the two parties, but also resulted in them issuing threats, insults and abusive comments,” he said.
A total of 19 police reports, he said, had been lodged involving the Rohingya issues and the police had also opened four papers based on the police reports.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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