Government firm in not allowing children of UNHCR refugees to enter public schools

The government is firm in not allowing children of refugees under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to enter public schools, the Dewan Negara was told Thursday.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim said they could only attend private schools or schools managed by non-governmental organisations.

"Right now the government is firm on its stand that they (refugees) are here as UNHCR card holders.

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They are only cardholders and we are not UNHCR member

”

- Shahidan Kassim.

"So, if they want to attend private schools, they can do so. This is current stand of the government," he said when replying to the supplementary question from Senator Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki at the Dewan Negara sitting here.

To the original question from Senator Roslin Abdul Rahman, Shahidan said according to the UNHCR statistics, there were 151,770 asylum seekers and refugees registered with the organisation as at Feb 28, 2015.

Of the total, 140,642 were from Myanmar, he added.