The Ministry of National Security has issued a press release to refute reports of a deliberate and targeted operation, spearheaded by the Ghana Armed Forces, to forcibly repatriate Burkinabe refugees from Ghana.
The Ministry said the reports were false and should be disregarded by all.
“The Ministry refutes such claims and wishes to state that Ghana is committed to accommodating Burkinabe nationals who have been displaced into the Upper East and Upper West regions of Ghana due to the prevailing security situation in southern Burkina Faso,” parts of the release from the Ministry of National Security said.
The Ministry explained that through collaboration with the Ghana Refugee Board and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a temporary reception centre had been established in the Upper East Region, capable of holding an estimated 2,100 displaced people from Burkina Faso.
It said at the moment, 530 displaced Burkinabes were being accommodated at the reception centre.
“Additionally, Ghanaian official entities ensure that the displaced persons have access to free food and medical care.
“Also, as part of measures to enhance containment efforts, a 30-acre land has been acquired for the establishment of housing facilities to host displaced persons,” the release added.
The Ministry of National Security noted that contrary to the false reports that displaced Burkinabes were being forced out of Ghana, a repatriation process had been instituted at the reception centre to aid the movement of Burkinabes who wished to return to their country.
The repatriation process according to the Ministry was consistent with international protocols on the management of refugees and had so far, been implemented in collaboration with Burkinabe Immigration Authorities along the Ghana-Burkina Faso border.
Read the full release below:
PRESS RELEASE The Ministry of National Security has taken note of media reports and publications that suggest a deliberate and targeted operation, spearheaded by the Ghana Armed Forces, to forcibly repatriate Burkinabe refugees from Ghana.
The Ministry refutes such claims and wishes to state that Ghana is committed to accommodating Burkinabe nationals who have been displaced into the Upper East and Upper West regions of Ghana due to the prevailing security situation in southern Burkina Faso.
The Ministry, in collaboration with the Ghana Refugee Board and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has accordingly established a temporary reception centre in the Upper East Region, capable of holding an estimated Two thousand, one hundred (2,100) displaced people from Burkina Faso.
Currently, five hundred and thirty (530) displaced Burkinabes are being accommodated at the reception centre. Additionally, Ghanaian official entities ensure that the displaced persons have access to free food and medical care. Also, as part of measures to enhance containment efforts, a 30-acre land has been acquired for the establishment of housing facilities to host displaced persons.
Contrary to claims that displaced Burkinabes are being forced out of Ghana, a repatriation process has been instituted at the reception centre to aid the movement of Burkinabes who wish to return to their country. The repatriation process is consistent with international protocols on the management of refugees and has so far, been implemented in collaboration with Burkinabe Immigration Authorities along the GhanaBurkina Faso border.
The Government of Ghana, while reaffirming its determination to safeguard the peace, stability and territorial integrity of the country, and promote the welfare of the citizens of the country, would continue to undertake the necessary operations without compromising values, such as respect for human rights, including the rights of refugees and displaced persons from neighbouring countries.
Refugees are concerned that the incoming administration will continue to close UNHCR officesand expand an official tracking system.
Millions of Malaysians will go to the polls on November 19 to decide the direction of their country for the next five years.
While Malaysians vote in the hope of creating the country they want, the 183,000 refugees who live there are wary of what appears to be a recent hardening of rhetoric toward asylum seekers and refugees.
Refugees, who are classified as “illegal immigrants” under Malaysian law, are one of the country’s most marginalised and vulnerable communities, with no right to work or access to formal education.
Like most of its neighbours in Southeast Asia, Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN’s 1951 refugee convention or the 1967 protocol, but in recent months the government of incumbent Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has returned asylum seekers to Myanmar, launched a new tracking system for refugees and announced its commitment to closing down the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which currently handles protection needs for asylum seekers and refugees.
“The presence of UNHCR offices is seen to be the biggest pulling factor towards the increased arrival of foreign migrants,” a cabinet minister, Abd Latiff Ahmad, said in a parliamentary reply to then-opposition member of parliament Charles Santiago on October 7 shortly before the house was dissolved.
Ismail Sabri, who is a vice president of the United Malays National Organisation, is campaigning for re-election as part of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition against two other broad coalitions, including BN’s current partner in government Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Pakatan Harapan, which won the last election in May 2018 but collapsed amid political manoeuvring.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob (second left) is campaigning hard to form the next government. His administration has said it wants to close the offices of the UN refugee agency in Malaysia [Mohd Rasfan/AFP]
Human Rights Watch’s Asia deputy director, Phil Robertson, told Al Jazeera that some see the moves as an election ploy.
“Many observers believe that the Home Affairs Minister is pushing this issue hard for political reasons, to try and scapegoat UNHCR as the problem, which plays well with parts of the conservative electorate who are more xenophobic and anti-refugee,” he said.
“That’s a real shame because refugees should not be demonised for any reason because it puts people’s lives at risk.”
‘Terrible and sad’
Many refugees are alarmed at the potential closure of the UNHCR offices.
The agency not only assesses protection needs but also helps verify the identity of those caught up in the immigration detention system, although the government has not allowed access to the centres since 2019 during Pakatan Harapan’s brief period in power.
James Bawi Thang Bik, a representative for The Alliance of Chin Refugees in Malaysia, described the move as “terrible and sad news for the refugee community”.
People from Myanmar account for 85 per cent of the refugees in Malaysia, and ethnic Chins who come from the country’s west are the second-largest group after the mostly Muslim Rohingya.
Rohingya refugee children feed a sacrificial cow on the eve of Eid al-Adha in Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 9, 2022 [REUTERS/Hasnoor Hussain]
The UNHCR is usually the first point of call for new arrivals, who go through a series of interviews and checks with agency staff to assess whether they are in genuine need of protection. Those assessed as refugees are given identity cards from the agency, with the lucky few eventually securing resettlement elsewhere.
But the process of getting a card can take months and resettlement years.
“We are afraid the registration process will take longer than the UNHCR registration process,” said Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani, the president of the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization in Malaysia (MEHROM). “Usually, it will take between three to six years for the Rohingya asylum seekers to be recognised as refugees. In some cases, more than six years.”
Zafar himself was the target of a disinformation campaign that forced him into hiding in 2020 after a false Facebook post claimed that he had demanded Malaysian citizenship for Rohingya refugees. Two years later, he and his family are still receiving death threats and harassment.
‘Establishing a national framework’
The UN refugee agency first began working in Malaysia during the Vietnam refugee crisis in the 1970s and has expanded rapidly as a result of conflicts in countries from Myanmar to Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Syria.
Its colonial-era bungalow in Kuala Lumpur has been extended multiple times, and the once-lush garden is covered over with portacabins, parking and a vast covered building where asylum seekers wait for interviews and for claims to be processed.
When asked about the government’s plan to close the offices, Yante Ismail, the Kuala Lumpur-based UNHCR spokesperson, told Al Jazeera that it “welcomes the continued engagement of the Government of Malaysia and ongoing efforts to explore closer cooperation on a variety of issues related to refugee protection”.
She added that the organisation has been in close discussions on a framework of cooperation on managing refugees in the country for years through a government-initiated Joint Task Force, cochaired by the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UN refugee agency.
“UNHCR welcomes the Malaysian Government’s continued interest in establishing a national framework to manage the refugee situation in the country that may eventually result in the Government assuming greater responsibility for refugee management and protection,” she said.
Rohingya refugee and activist Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani and his wife were forced into hiding in 2020 after disinformation was spread about him on social media. He continues to receive death threats [File: Lim Huey Teng/Reuters]
But others are sceptical about the government’s ability to handle the work.
“The bottom line is the government doesn’t really have the capacity to manage the refugee situation in the country,” Human Rights Watch’s Robertson said.
“With more than 180,000 UNHCR-recognised refugees, there is a major human rights protection challenge to keep those people safe, and nothing the Malaysian government has done to date indicates that they are up for that challenge.”
Questions over resettlement
The plan to take control of asylum seekers and refugees in Malaysia has also raised questions about the resettlement process under which people are able to start new lives in third countries. The UNHCR is central to the process and works with accepting countries to submit refugees for resettlement. In Malaysia, most refugees are resettled in the United States.
“What I can say is that there will be no more resettlement for refugees in the absence of UNHCR,” said James Bawi Thang Bik. “I think resettlement for refugees is beyond the capacity of a government without UNHCR.”
Robertson notes that most governments require a UNHCR interview to determine the status of a refugee.
“The fact that Malaysia is not a state party of the UN Refugee Convention means that UNHCR’s role is even more important and that closing down the office would be like Malaysia shooting itself in the foot,” he said.
While UNHCR identifies refugees in need of resettlement, it is up to resettlement countries to decide how many refugees they will accept with a quota decided each financial year. The US, which takes in the most people, has said it will accept 125,000 refugees under resettlement after reaching an all-time low during the administration of former President Donald Trump when the quota was cut to 15,000.
Former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is campaigning as leader of Perikatan Nasional (PN). As prime minister, he had said Malaysia could not cope with any more Rohingya refugees [Hasnoor Hussain/Reuters]
Despite the challenging situation in Malaysia, many refugees are hoping that whoever wins power this week will not only reconsider the plan to close the offices of the UN refugee agency but also develop a more comprehensive policy for refugees and asylum seekers, even though the competing coalitions’ manifestos barely touch on the issue.
Officials have periodically talked of giving refugees the right to work, while outgoing Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah has often visited community schools for Rohingya refugees while in office.
Back in 2016, as he faced growing questions over his role in the multibillion-dollar corruption scandal, now-jailed Prime Minister Najib Razak held a mass rally condemning Myanmar’s “genocide” against the Rohingya.
It was not possible for the world to “sit by and watch genocide taking place” he told thousands of people at a Kuala Lumpur stadium, adding that the persecution of the Rohingya was an “insult” to Islam.
The next year, hundreds of thousands more Rohingya were forced to flee as the Myanmar army launched a brutal crackdown in the country’s northwest that is now the subject of a genocide trial at the International Court of Justice.
“We hope the new government will allow the UNHCRto resume their work to assist refugees and asylum seekers and find a durable solution for them,” said MEHROM’s Zafar.
