Stronger Regional Framework Needed To Tackle Refugee Crisis

KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 (Bernama) -- A stronger regional and national regulated framework on refugees is needed to tackle Southeast Asia’s ongoing refugee crisis, said United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees representative to Malaysia, Richard Towle. He said at the moment the Asian region hosted the largest refugees and displaced people in the world but the lack of coherent refugee policy regionally and nationally meant the region had failed to solve the problem. He said a proper refugees policy was imperative to increase the range of regulated means for safe and sustainable protection of refugees. “In the Asia region, half of the countries have not acceded to the 1951 Refugee Convention. A better regulated framework for refugees will also address the security issues… we know from research and studies that marginalised and vulnerable population who cannot work within a legalised framework can be exploited and recruited into militant activities. “So to avoid that we must allow people into the country and set a proper recognition and documentation for them," he said when speaking on a concurrent sessions discussion ‘Irregular Migration: Regional flows and Impact’ at the 31st Asia-Pacific Roundtable here Wednesday. According to the data by UNHCR, currently the Asia and Pacific region is home to 7.7 million people of concern to UNHCR, including 3.5 million refugees, 1.9 million internally displaced people and 1.4 million stateless people. The majority of refugees originate from Afghanistan and Myanmar. Meanwhile International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Kuala Lumpur head of regional delegation, Isabelle Barras said any policy draft regarding refugees must also distinguish between a refugee and an economic migrant. She said this was important because an economic migrant voluntarily leaves a country to seek a better life while refugees flee because of a threat or prosecution. “We often categorise them as one, which is wrong, we must differentiate between those two as refugees needed more protection than the economic migrant,” she added. Themed "The Future of the Asia-Pacific: Issues and Institutions In Flux", the three-day roundtable which concluded Wednesday is convened by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia and ASEAN-ISIS network. -- BERNAMA