Allowing UNHCR card holders to work will curb trafficking - Tenaganita

Allowing Rohingya UNHCR card holders to work will help reduce cases of trafficking and their children begging on the streets, said Tenaganita co-director, Aegile Fernandez.

Aegile, lauded the decision and said that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been pushing for such decision for a long time.

"It is good that the government has taken the stance to allow the refuges to work. There will not be an immediate solution to the problem refugees face and therefore they will be on our soil. Allowing them to work means they now have the money to look after themselves and their families," Aegile said in a telephone interview with Astro AWANI here today.

She said the money can be used to aid the refugees to rent a better place to live and send their children to schools.

She also said that at present, some of the refugees are employed in small businesses although they are not allowed to work.

"With the proper document, they will not be harassed and this will also keep them they are causing problems. And one from human trafficking point, because they don’t have income, they were easily lured by traffickers and their children used by begging syndicates," she added.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today announced that 00 Rohingya United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) card holders can work legally in Malaysia, begining March 1.

Those selected will have to pass security and health screening before being allowed to work.

They will be trained to work in plantation and manufacturing sectors before they are relocated to a third country.

Currently, there are a total of 149,474 documented UNHCR card holders from 62 countries in the country.

Out of that, 89 per cent are from Myanmar, with more than 55,000 refugees of Rohingya ethnicity.