Make legal adjustments to affirm refugees' right to work - Experts

Government can make adjustments in order to allow refugees in the country to work legally.

Human rights consultant and researcher Tashny Sukumaran said there are clauses within the existing laws that can be expanded to affirm refugees' right to work.

"The Government must want to change all these things.

''Meaningful change on a large scale would be signing the refugee convention and enacting it as a domestic law but that is quite a big ask, I understand that.

"However, I would say legally, there are provisions under the Immigration Act, which is Section 55 where the Home Minister has discretionary powers to grant exemption to a group of people from laws which do not allow them to work," said Tashny during an interview with Astro AWANI's Consider This to mark World Refugee Day.

Also featured during the programme was Executive Director of Asylum Access Malaysia, Tham Hui Ying.

She highlighted a case in the Industrial Court back in 2014, which is also known as the 'Taj Mahal' case where it involved a refugee worker.

"As a summary to the case, the Court said firstly, it does not matter if the person was a refugee, they still have a right to employment.

"This falls within Article 5 of the Constitution. In fact, Article 8 of the Constitution which talks about equal protection under the law is also applicable in this case," explained Tham.

She added that ultimately, the Court decided that even if the refugees are not recognised, it do not mean that they do not have the right to seek gainful employment or to be protected under the Industrial Relations Act or the Employment Act.

"This case is the foundation for our work rights programme. Technically, the refugees do not have the legal right to work, but they still have certain labour protections," said Tham.