SHAH ALAM - The government must be firm in resolving the matter of issuing United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Cards to Rohingya ethnic refugees by revoking the recognition of all cards that have been issued.
Lawyer Norman Fernandez said the government should be the only responsible party to issue refugee cards or documents, not other agencies or associations.
"The government should instruct UNHCR not to issue any UNHCR cards or give any permission to them. The card should also be issued only after the government makes a transparent review process.
"Next, the government must also keep complete data of the refugees such as photos and fingerprints before allowing Rohingya refugees and illegal immigrants to have the documentation," he told Sinar Premium.
He added that the government should assess whether the UNHCR body was still needed in Malaysia because it seemed like the function of UNHCR had strayed from its expected role.
"UNHCR has shifted their responsibilities and acted as if it was the Home Ministry responsible for the Rohingya issues. Therefore, the government needs to examine whether they are playing their role or deviating from the real goal.
"The government also needs to monitor human rights bodies or associations that collude with the UNHCR," he said.
The issue of UNHCR cards among the Rohingya in the country was that it seemed to be equivalent to the Permanent Resident Card (MyPR).
Card owners feel protected and were one factor that triggered hundreds of ethnic detainees to flee from the Sungai Bakap Immigration Detention Depot near Bandar Baharu recently.
Last month, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin informed that the government would review the issuance of UNHCR cards for Rohingya refugees to prevent them from easily entering the country without documents.
Norman Fernandez fully supported Hamzah's announcement and stressed that the UNHCR's job was to ensure placement in third countries and not to assist the welfare and safety of the Rohingya by issuing UNHCR cards arbitrarily.
"Actually, Malaysia does not recognise the UNHCR card and Malaysia has not signed any law to allow them to live here. The government also did not ratify the convention to accept refugees from third countries.
"However, the UNHCR card has become an identity card and the Rohingya people think that with this card, they have become protected and use it to carry licensed ships and if they were detained, no actions would be taken against them," he said.
He added that the estimated number of registered and unregistered Rohingya in the country had reached 200,000 people and the figure was alarming and a burden to Malaysia.
"They know that no country is ready to accept or give placement to third countries, including 57 other Islamic countries. On the other hand, most Western countries are Islamophobic, which influences Rohingya refugees' placement in their country.
"The increase in the Rohingya population has risen sharply in Malaysia because they have higher birth rates than Malays. They know that if they have children, they cannot be deported and this is international law," he said.
However, Norman Fernandez said that was not a key for us to allow the Rohingya refugees to roam freely.
"We must be wise in differentiating between those who come to the country because they are oppressed like Myanmar or those who fled from Bangladeshi camps to Malaysia.
"Those who come because of oppression are counted as asylum seekers, but Rohingya refugees who come to Malaysia from Bangladesh are not considered asylum seekers but economic migrants," he said.
Previously, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah had stressed that the forcible deportation of any population was listed as one of the crimes against humanity in international law, in particular the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court and the convention on prevention and punishment of genocide.