Malaysia hosts some 90,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, of whom 92 per cent are from Myanmar. Other significant refugee populations in the country originate from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Sri Lanka. The number of refugees and asylum-seekers has doubled since the end of 2008 as a result of large-scale registration of asylum-seekers, many of whom had been in the country for years.
Malaysia is not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its Protocol. There is currently no legislative or administrative framework for dealing with refugees. This challenging protection environment makes it difficult for UNHCR to fulfil its mandate in the country, which has some 3 million migrants, 1.5 million of whom are considered undocumented migrants.
By law, refugees are not differentiated from undocumented migrants. They are therefore vulnerable to arrest for immigration offences and may be subject to detention, prosecution, whipping and deportation. In the absence of a national administrative framework, UNHCR conducts all activities related to the reception, registration, documentation and status determination of asylum-seekers and refugees. Since refugees and asylum-seekers have no access to sustainable livelihoods or formal education, UNHCR runs a limited number of humanitarian support programmes for them, in cooperation with NGO partners.
Malaysia also hosts a population of some 60,000 Filipino Muslims in the province of Sabah for whom the Malaysian Government has assumed responsibility, and an estimated 40,000 potentially stateless people in Peninsular Malaysia.
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