In contrast to the thrill felt by many ladies after they discover out they’re anticipating a child, Hanna* was crammed with worry when she realised she was pregnant.
The Myanmar refugee who arrived in Malaysia in 2023 and remains to be ready for her United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card had many causes to worry what was to return.
“I didn’t have money to go to a doctor, so I had to eat less for five months to save enough money to get a medical check,” she instructed Al Jazeera. Later, she was referred to a personal clinic that gives antenatal care to refugees and asylum seekers for nominal costs. However the pains she endured throughout her being pregnant left Hannah with no alternative however to hunt assist at a public hospital, the place, as a refugee, she risked being reported to immigration for not having any paperwork.
Underneath Malaysia’s immigration legal guidelines, public well being services are instructed to report undocumented sufferers to the authorities, placing them prone to arrest, detention and deportation. This was bolstered by a directive from the Ministry of Well being in 2001 that made it necessary for public well being staff to report undocumented sufferers.
Malaysia just isn’t a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Conference or the 1967 protocol referring to it. This implies refugees are usually not recognised and they’re disadvantaged of primary human rights equivalent to work, entry to schooling and healthcare, and stay below fixed danger of arrest and detention.
Nora*, a refugee who works on the clinic, instructed Al Jazeera that Hanna was not the one refugee lady going through difficulties in her being pregnant because of the lack of entry to healthcare and its price.
“We offer help to over 22 refugees and asylum seekers. They can’t afford healthcare, it’s very expensive for them,” she stated.
Refugees registered with the UNHCR get a 50 p.c discount on healthcare prices paid by foreigners, however the price stays unaffordable for a lot of, in response to Nora. As for many who are undocumented like Hanna, the prices are usually not solely costly however filled with dangers.
Hanna ended up giving start to her youngster in March at one other public hospital. In response to her, the medical doctors assured her security and didn’t comply with the order to report her to immigration, however the caesarean part that she wanted price her greater than 6,000 Malaysian ringgit ($1,200).
“I saved only 3,000 ringgits over my pregnancy, so I had to borrow money from my friends to afford the procedure,” she stated.
‘Changes have not happened’
Hanna’s story is considered one of many who spotlight the challenges ladies face as asylum seekers and refugees in Malaysia on account of their precarious standing.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination towards Ladies (CEDAW) will convene on Wednesday to overview Malaysia’s progress in implementing the suggestions of final 12 months’s overview, which highlighted the issues attributable to the continued lack of a authorized framework for refugees.
The committee introduced an inventory of points and inquiries to Malaysian officers, together with a suggestion that the nation undertake a “long-term legislative approach” to make sure ladies asylum seekers, refugees and migrants have entry to well being providers and are exempt from paying greater charges than Malaysians.
The committee additionally requested Malaysia to repeal the order to report undocumented sufferers to immigration authorities and repeated earlier suggestions to the Nationwide Safety Council (NSC) to undertake a authorized framework for refugees as a “priority”.
In its reply, the Malaysian authorities stated the nation supplied unrestricted entry to all ranges of well being services in each private and non-private well being sectors, however didn’t touch upon the advice to exempt refugees and asylum seekers from greater charges than Malaysians.
As for the requirement to report undocumented migrants to the immigration authorities, Malaysia stated it could proceed.
“It is the prerogative of a sovereign State to detained [sic] and return any undocumented person staying illegally in the country,” the response learn. “The detention of such [a] person allows the Government to determine the security nature or threat that the person may hold against the country.”
Nonetheless, in its response, Malaysia additionally stated it had amended Nationwide Safety Directive Quantity 23 – Mechanisms for the Administration of Unlawful Immigrants that maintain UNHCR Playing cards – to offer a coverage for the administration of asylum seekers and refugees, and that it included “major changes” that will grant asylum seekers and refugees entry to employment, healthcare and schooling.
“In this regard, refugees and asylum seekers as defined in the Directive are allowed to remain or stay temporarily in Malaysia based on humanitarian grounds in the fulfilment of Malaysia’s international moral obligations,” it stated.
Regardless of that, the state of affairs on the bottom has not modified, in response to the refugee rights organisation Asylum Entry Malaysia, which submitted a report back to the CEDAW committee forward of this 12 months’s overview.
Asylum Entry famous that the main points of the directive remained unknown and unpublished, and that it was unsure how refugees and asylum seekers had been outlined within the directive or if it aligned with worldwide definitions.
The “NSC directive significantly falls short of a legal framework as recommended by the CEDAW committee”, it stated.
The organisation warned that the claimed amendments to the directive additionally lacked any readability on knowledge safety for refugees added to the nationwide registration system or whether or not the info might be used as a surveillance instrument or be shared with different governments.
The report criticised the adoption of such a directive in what it described as a “highly classified internal decision-making process” by the Nationwide Safety Council with none type of public overview or authorized problem.
Katrina Jorene Maliamauv, the chief director of Amnesty Worldwide Malaysia, stated that regardless of the claims from the federal government that the state of affairs had modified, the expertise of refugee ladies and women urged in any other case.
“As refugees continue to be arrested, detained, remain at risk of indefinite detention and refoulement, are denied the right to safe, decent and sustainable livelihoods, remain in fear of accessing healthcare due to risks of arrest and detention and prohibitive costs, are denied the right to education, and a host of fundamental rights, it is clear that the changes that need to be made have not happened,” she stated.
The Nationwide Safety Council didn’t reply to questions from Al Jazeera relating to the directive and its implementation.
*Pseudonyms have been used to guard the refugees’ identities.
