THE Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation Malaysia (Merhrom) calls upon the United Nations, world leaders, civil society organisations, faith-based organisations, community-based organisations, and the international community to increase efforts to end conflict, war, and genocide and continue their support to all refugees around the world particularly in building our resilient to face various challenges as refugees living in exile while waiting for a durable solution to come.
As refugees living in exile, our basic rights are always compromised. We don’t have the right to work legally, we face lack of access to education and treatment, as well as threats to our security. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, we have faced a massive wave of hate speech and xenophobia which resulted in refugees receiving threats, physical abuse, harassment, and defamation which put our lives at risk and jeopardised our physical health, mental health, and well-being. This made our lives more difficult and challenging.
As hate speech and xenophobia continue to haunt refugees and migrants, we call upon everyone to put a stop to it as the consequences are horrible and unbearable. We applaud the move made by the Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) in partnership with the office of the speaker of Malaysia’s Dewan Rakyat for launching the Toolkit for Parliamentarians to Promote Counter Narrative to Hate Speech Towards Migrants and Refugees in Malaysia on June 8, 2023 in the Malaysian Parliament.
We would like to work closely with APHR, parliamentarians, government agencies, civil society organisations, faith-based organisations, community-based organisations, media, students, universities, the public, and the international community to counter the narrative of hate speech in the country and globally.
The Rohingya continue to suffer from the impact of Rohingya genocide in Cox’s Bazar refugee camps in Bangladesh and in transit countries. The Rohingya in refugee camps are already struggling for basic needs on a day-to-day basis on top of other problems in the camps. Cutting the food aid will make their situation worse. This will force them to flee the camps and there will be more Rohingya who will fall into human traffickers’ hands. There will be more women forced into prostitution and there will be more children who become forced labour.
The number of refugees, especially children who suffer malnutrition, is beyond imagination. There will be an increasing number of refugees who will suffer acute malnutrition which will lead to various health problems which will have a major impact on their physical health, mental health, and well-being.
As this year’s World Refugee Day focuses on the power of inclusion and solutions for refugees, we encourage a meaningful engagement with the refugee communities to ensure we are included in every level of decision-making to draw strategic solutions and durable solutions for refugees in line with sustainable development goals.
We call upon stakeholders to ensure the rights to education for all children, including refugee children to prepare us to return home when conditions allow us to do so. Education will also help refugees in the resettlement process to a third country. For the Rohingya refugees who were made stateless by the Myanmar junta, the only durable solution for us is the resettlement to a third country. Therefore, we request to the resettlement countries to increase the quota for the Rohingya for resettlement as we are facing ongoing genocide back home and due to our stateless status.
Finally, we wish for equal treatment for all refugees around the globe and we hope for a peaceful and safe environment for vulnerable refugees where our lives and security are ensured. – The Vibes, June 20, 2023
World Refugee Day is observed by the United Nations on June 20 every year
Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani is president of Merhrom
