No state, no papers, no schools
source : Straits Times (26-01-02)
Myanmar refugees face a bleak future as they cannot go to school because they are stateless
By Leslie Lau IN KUALA LUMPUR
TWELVE-year-old Rashidah Mohamed Yusof said her greatest wish is to be able to attend school. But even though she is born in Malaysia, she has been prevented from going to school because she is stateless.
She is one of hundreds of Muslim refugees from Myanmar, known as Rohingyas, who live here. 'I went to school for two years. I studied Malay, English and Islam, but one day they told me I could not attend school because I am not a citizen,' she said.
Mr Sawme Ullah, a Rohingya activist working for the Muslim Youth Movement (Abim), said there are at least 2,000 Rohingya children who are born here and have been deprived of an education because most of them do not have birth certificates. All of their parents fled Myanmar in the early 90s, claiming persecution by the army there.
But most of them have not been able to get refugee status despite numerous applications to the United Nations. To get by, they work illegally.
The UNHCR registered more than 5,000 Rohingyas here in 1992, but only 60 applications for refugee status had been approved. Thousands of them fled Myanmar after the government refused to recognise them as citizens.According to the UNHCR, the Rohingyas were not given the recognition because many of them lived along the border with Bangladesh and had no documents to prove their citizenship.
Rashidah's father, Mr Mohamed Yusof Ali, said he did not register his children's births because he feared being nabbed by the immigration authorities. Mr Sawme said Abim had set up basic schools providing mostly religious education, but most of them had to be closed because of money.
'The future is bleak for these children as Abim cannot help them very much,' he said.He said all the Rohingyas in Malaysia wished to return to Myanmar so long as their safety could be guaranteed.
Mr Mohamed Yusof said he had left his parents behind in Myanmar in 1992 when he fled.He travelled to Thailand and stayed there for two years before sneaking into Malaysia. He has four children, age five to 13, who spend their time in his wooden shack outside the city playing and watching television.
'I have tried applying for refugee status, but it has been rejected every time because I have no documents. They will also not consider my children because they have no birth certificates,' he said.