JUMP (Jaringan Utara Migrasi & Perlarian) Malaysia along with the Migrant Workers Group announced in Penang the release of a new booklet about the Rohingya people, written and compiled by Abdul Hashim Abdul Motalib, a refugee who has lived without legal rights or status as an undocumented person in Malaysia for the last two years.

Booklet Auhthor and Rohingya Refugee, Abdul Hashim Abdul Motalib

Hashim’s experience as a refugee, however, did not begin upon his arrival to Malaysia where he crossed the border from Thailand and has lived since 2007. Hashim became a refugee in 1978, when as a three year old, his family fled Myanmar to Bangladesh.

Hashim is not unacquainted with the harsh realities of life. In 1991, at the age of 12 he returned to Myanmar for a short while and participated in a demonstration. He was arrested by the military and tortured. When discussing how there are many stories he wants to write about his people he said, “I cannot write with my own hand, I must type on the computer.” He struggles to hold a pen since his arm was so badly hurt when he was tortured during his incarciration.

Members of the JUMP Network and MWG officially launch the booklet

Presently separated from his two young boys and his wife, whose whereabouts is unknown since she was kidnapped in the Bangladeshi refugee camp where they were living, Hashim now lives in Malaysia. One of the estimated 28,000 Rohhingya currently in Malaysia, Hashim is stateless. The government of Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens, and the Malaysian government does not recognize the Rohingya as refugees. Like many other refugees one of the most difficult realities Hashim faces is the separation from his family.

A spokesperson from the JUMP Network stated that the Rohingya “are in limbo.” The fact that they have no refugee status granted by the Malaysian government means they have “no basic rights that citizens of Malaysia take for granted” including access to health care, education, or the right to redress.

And the problem is not a new one. The Rohingya have been in limbo in Malaysia for more than two decades. Hashim explained that the reason he wrote the booklet was to show that the Rohingya want to contribute to Malaysian society. He intends for the booklet to break down barriers between his community and Malaysians. “We have been stateless for more than two decades; in the next decade we want legal rights to education and to work,” he said.

Many Rohingya have been arrested, detained in camps, and deported from Malaysia. While many more Rohingya work in various forms of manual labour, especially construction. From a practical point of view, Alice Nah of The Migration Working Group, considers the present government policy of arrest and deportation as a waste of time, explaining that as stateless people, they only come back, because they have now where else to go. Granting legal status, to treat the Rohingya in a humane way is paramount for Nah and her organization: “Malaysians need to recognize the contribution of Rohingya to Malaysia.”

Representatives of JUMP and MWG who gathered in Penang this weekend reiterated their commitment to continually lobby government to get some sort of legal status or recognition for the Rohingya in Malaysia and other refugees.

To produce the booklet, Hashim traveled throughout Malaysia, visiting communities of Rohingya throughout the country to assess their needs and concerns. The booklet is a concise overview of the different communities, the danger they face fleeing their country of origin, and the daily risks of life as undocumented people: harassment, extortion, arrest, deportation, and fear. The booklet includes photographs of the squalor conditions many Rohingya live in.

Hashim wrote to raise awareness and to build bridges of understanding between his people and Malaysians. What remains clear is that there is much to be done in the nation for the Rohingya. For the more than 28,000 refugees of this people group, that bridge can’t be built soon enough.