Refugee children in Malaysia and the customary international law (original) (raw)
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This article has exhibited the child rights framework's relevance while assessing and analysing voiceless Malaysian refugee and asylum-seeking children's status. The secondary data has been segregated, themed and analysed under the child rights framework related to refugee and asylum-seeking children. The article argues that refugees and asylum-seeking children in Malaysia are treated as outsiders and threats to the social fabric; this rhetoric against refugees and asylum-seeking children has shaped Malaysia’s excluded legal and social treatment towards such children. It has also exacerbated the painful and excluded experiences of such children. The article also argues that only frameworks do not bring the desired results if the state constantly thrives on racialised politics. The analysis shows these children are subject to various social, economic, political, legal and normative issues, which have compelled them to live a quite stressful and challenging life. These childre...
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Refugee children are identified as rights-bearers by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), but their rights are not uniformly honored in the policies and practices of contemporary states. How the CRC’s safeguards for refugee children’s rights are honored depends partly on what it means to be ‘a refugee child’ and partly on how the claims of refugee children’s rights are recognized, respected, and implemented in international and national legal and bureaucratic systems. We examine the CRC’s affirmation of the rights of the child and analyze the CRC’s articles in relation to the rights related to the life circumstances of refugee children and state responsibilities. Following an analysis of resistance to the CRC’s mandates by contemporary states, we relate refugee children’s rights to their refugee and developmental experiences and argue for repositioning refugee children into the center of protection dialogue and practice, internationally and nationally.
This paper problematizes Malaysia’s apparently contradictory policies – harsh immigration rules applied to refugees and asylum seekers on the one hand, and the continued presence and functioning of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on the other hand. It asks how it has been possible to protect and assist refugees and asylum seekers in light of such policies and how such protection and assistance is implemented, justified, and maintained. Giorgio Agamben’s concept of the state of exception is employed in analyzing the possibility of refugee protection and assistance amidst an otherwise hostile immigration regime and in understanding the nature of juridical indeterminacy in which refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia inhabit. I also argue that the exception for refugees in Malaysia is a particular kind of exception, that is, a ‘humanitarian exception.’ Insofar as the state of exception is decided on by the sovereign, in Carl Schmitt’s famous formulation, I argue that it is precisely in the application of ‘humanitarian exception’ for refugees and asylum seekers that the Malaysian state is asserting its sovereignty. As for the protection and assistance to refugees and asylum seekers, it remains an exception to the rule. In other words, it is temporary, partial, and all together insufficient for the preservation of the dignity of refugees and asylum seekers. To make these arguments, the paper begins with a brief history of Malaysia’s encounters with refugees and asylum seekers, that is, occasions when ‘humanitarian exceptions’ were invoked through the issuance of IMM13 permits. Next, it describes Malaysia’s current de facto policy towards refugees in the context of mixed migration to provide a picture of the kind of juridical order from which refugees and asylum seekers are at times exempted. Then, it describes the role of the UNHCR in protecting and assisting refugees and asylum seekers through the implementation of a number of informal mechanisms in cooperation with non-government organizations (NGOs) within and through this state of exception. To conclude, the paper offers some preliminary insights on the implications of the foregoing for the evolution of refugee rights in Malaysia.
International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, 2021
The purpose of this paper is to find out how the implementation of the regulation on the fulfillment of children's refugee rights in Indonesia. This research uses the normative legal research method and the legislative approach. The results showed that the existing regulations have not sufficiently fulfilled the rights of child refugees because it does not regulate in detail the fulfillment of the rights specifically possessed by a child. For instance, the Presidential Regulation only concerns the discovery, holding, security, and supervision of refugees while at the refugee camp. The conclusion obtained is the need for additional rules regarding the operational standards for handling refugees that regulate what things can be done and prohibited by refugees while in shelters. This is closely related to the guarantee of refugee rights by Indonesia including child refugees.
THE PLIGHT OF REFUGEES IN MALAYSIA MALAYSIA AS A TRANSIT COUNTRYIN PROTECTING REFUGEES RIGHTS
Journal of Nusantara Studies, 5(1), 378-394. , 2020
The role of UNHCR and respective transit countries is to help refugees find lasting solutions that will allow them to rebuild their lives in dignity and peace, via local integration, voluntary repatriation or resettlement in a third country. Awaiting resettlement, the refugees are always mistakenly believed to be economic migrants or illegal immigrants. Due to the absence of legal or administrative regulations governing refugees, they are exposed to detention with the possibility of refoulement. These refugees are not legally permitted to work, which leads them to work discreetly and are willing to perform low-paying jobs in order to earn a living. Children are denied proper education and healthcare, which are considered as luxuries they could not afford. All these are common and enduring plights that still haunt refugees in Malaysia. This article reviews the plight of refugees in Malaysia during the transitional period before resettlement, discusses the roles of Malaysia as a transit country, and proposes lasting solutions for refugees in Malaysia. It is hoped that this article will provide a better understanding of the roles of transit countries particularly Malaysia for protection of refugees’ rights especially on their resettlement. In addition, assistance from UNHCR and other NGOs are also important to solve this problem. Keywords: Malaysia, refugee, resettlement, transit country, UNHCR. Cite as: Sahak, S., Nordin, R., & Ishak, M. K. (2020). The plight of refugees in Malaysia: Malaysia as a transit country in protecting refugees’ rights.
Refugees in Malaysia: Protection Framework, Challenges and Implications
Malaysian Journal of Syariah and Law, 2021
The arrivals and protracted presence of asylum seekers and refugees in Malaysia have been met with policies largely shaped by humanitarian approaches leading to inconsistent responses and impasse in achieving durable solutions to refugee dilemmas. This qualitative study using the method of desk review of materials such as books, journals and newspaper articles identifies the human rights protection framework for asylum seekers and refugees and the problematic implications and challenges for both refugees and the host country, Malaysia, due to the absence of a formal refugee protection framework at the national level. Despite gaps in and outdated nature of the 1951 Refugee Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, it calls for refugee legal protections to be based on a legal and governance framework rather than non-binding aspirations and ad hoc approaches. The latter has proved adverse to both the interests of the host state and refugee communities. The findings indicate that t...
THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF REFUGEE PROTECTION
2019
The more there are conflicts, the more they generate a large number of refugees, the more a large number of refugees is spread out around the world, the more it becomes a global issue involving the entire international community. Nowadays, the protection of refugees has become a major problem states, international organizations and other refugees' agencies have been facing, so it can be seen as a continuous feature of international life in the present century. The aim of this article is to show the place of the protection of refugees in the international legal framework, which is International refugee law, governing refugee protection as a branch of international law, originating from the revolution in Russia and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War in Europe, causing mass movement of people. International law is not itself a solution to the problem of refugees and the challenges produced by migratory flow, but it can be a facilitator and a guide to the principled effectiveness of measures which states may take. The significance of this topic is perceived from the fact it remains a current one and a global issue involving all the states signing the 1951 Geneva Convention on the status of the refugees.