In this case, the government of that country has taken the responsibility of managing the refugees in Malaysia. Due to this, it was reported that the decision to close the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Malaysia has been taken. Malaysia’s Minister for Special Operations, Latif Ahmed, made a comment to confirm this.
The Center for the Study of Democracy and Economic Affairs called IDEAS urged the Malaysian government to abandon this. In this regard, IDEAS Research Center CEO Tricia Yeoh said that Malaysia is a country that has not signed the UN Refugee Convention.
In this case, the UN Refugee Agency is playing an important role in protecting the refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees provides various types of protection to refugees, including determination of refugee status and resettlement.
In particular, the UN Commission is working with many charitable organizations to provide refugees with health, education, economic assistance, shelter, counseling, and other welfare assistance. In such circumstances, it would not be appropriate to close down the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia.
First, the Malaysian government should sign the 1951 Refugee Charter to demonstrate its commitment and readiness to manage refugees and asylum seekers. Otherwise Malaysia needs to develop international standard refugee policy and legal framework. A decision to close the UNHCR office should then be taken. Until then, the Malaysian government has been asked to withdraw its decision.