The world Refugees Day is observed all across the globe on
20th June each year. This day is acknowledgement of the sufferings and agony of
those who fled their homes due to fear of life and limb.. Who entered new lands
in the hope of seeking shelter until their miseries are over back home. This
author has spent many weeks in the field to gather facts for the eyes of his
readers. Nowadays Malaysia and Thailand are hosts to the thousands of Refugees
from different countries including Pakistan. these refugees are registered with
the UNHCR as such. Many Pakistanis have acquired the status of a registered
refugee with UNHCR by narrating stories of being victims of religious
persecution, terrorism, unlawful detention from law enforcement agencies and so
and so forth. Many of them has acquired refugee status by showing themselves as
Afghan nationals but they still use Pakistani travel documents. In Fact they
desire to go to USA, UK, Canada, Australia for better living and future there
though fake claims of security threats at home. Their main aim is to get settled
in these countries. No doubt there are genuine Pakistanis who are facing real
threats to their lives and their cases are worth consideration. Its very risky
for them to go back to Pakistan. No doubt the UNHCR offices at Malaysia and
Thailand have very strict system and they waste no time in rejecting those cases
based on false claims yet there are people who manage to go through it. The
immigration detention center IDC at Bangkok Thailand is host to several Ahmadis
qadianis and Christians who are being kept there for last 4 years as their
resettlement issues are in process. The author has interviewed several such
people who had zero threat while living in Pakistan but for their ulterior
motives and defame their country they have concocted stories of false
persecution. Many of them were able to get themselves resettled at USA, UK,
Canada, Australia, Europe through UNHCR. But there are people who despite having
a valid case are still hanging in between hope and despair. The author has met
people who are genuinely in trouble in Pakistan but their applications and cases
for moving out are pending and not been done yet. (coming back of such refugees
to Pakistan is like embracing death). Not only Pakistanis but people of Myanmar,
Afghanistan, Africa, Iran, Gulf countries also move in search of better future
and living, amongst these many people get the permission to live their while
some wait for their life time and others go back to their motherlands. If UNHCR
and the aforementioned countries inquire from their respective home counties
about their status that whether they really are in trouble or not so it will
solve many problems, plus they rights being snatched from those who really are
needy won’t be left out. America and few other countries refuse to let people
from Muslim countries live there, upon which UNCHR should take some action.
UNHCR’s office in Malaysia works really hard in order to provide every facility
to the refugees including health, education, opening bank account and to get
them jobs as well to some extent, which is credited to the UNHCR’s
representative Thomas Albrecht and Deputy representative Maja Lazic. Their hard
work is benefiting the refugees day and night. The setup of UNHCR Malaysia
consists of 11 officers out of which only the head is a male while rest of the
ten are nonlocal females, and the other staff consists of all Malaysian citizens
and they are working great. The working of so many women in UNHCR reflects the
positive attitude of UN towards women empowerment. People complain about the
telephone lines being busy for majority of the time. It is because there are
almost 1 hundred and 70 thousand (170000) refugees live in Malaysia who are
registered in UNHCR, that makes the office to install some more telephones.
There is a Malaysian lady employed as the Public and Media representative
(Spokesperson) but she doesn't perform her duty well due to some personal
issues, which unfortunately results in awareness of people towards UNHCR
Malaysia and its contributions. Local and foreign media can cover the
contributions of UNHCR Malaysia well provided that UNHCR replaces this lady with
someone who can perform his/her duty dutifully. Other foreign employees of the
aforementioned office are very cooperative towards refugees and we hope that
they remain the same in the future as well.