Refugees seeking asylum are found beaten, starved and exploited by authorities in two detention centres amid claims of corruption by staff.

An expose titled 'Malaysia’s Unwanted' by television station Al Jazeera’s 101 East was filmed showing refugees chained and handcuffed, and others who haven’t eaten for days.

Al Jazeera’s 101 East senior presenter and reporter Steve Chao discovers horrendous conditions and mistreatment of refugees by Malaysian authorities.

He also unearths claims that UNHCR staff – those tasked with helping refugees – are involved in corrupt dealings.

Chao discovers refugees are kept in cells in the overcrowded centres for almost 24 hours a day.

He also finds children in detention - a violation of the UN Convention on Child Rights; and meets women detained just hours after giving birth.

In Malaysia, refugees have no legal protection because the country has not signed the UN convention on rights of refugees. This means they can be arrested at any time and hauled off to one of the country’s notorious detention centres.

Kuala Lumpur has one of the world’s largest urban populations of refugees and asylum seekers, with approximately 150,000.

'Like an accident and emergency hospital'

Chao posed as a priest to gain entrance after his request to film inside the centres were declined many times.

In one encounter, the dialogue goes:

Detainee: “Every week, we’re allowed out just once…”

Chao: “They don’t let you exercise or walk around a bit?

Detainee: “No… all day, every day we’re inside. In one room there are about 100 people…”

In another scene, one former detainee describes being beaten with a steel pole:

Asylum seeker from Myanmar: “The hardest thing I faced in jail was being forced to take my clothes off and then being beaten, slapped and kicked in front of others.”

Malaysian authorities have admitted that abuse does happen in their centres but insisted that conditions are better than in many other countries.

101 East uncovers how UNHCR workers are overwhelmed by people seeking help, with more than 1,000 refugees and asylum seekers arriving every day at its Kuala Lumpur compound.

Richard Towle, who leads the UNHCR mission, tells Al Jazeera:

“We’re like an accident and emergency hospital, not a general hospital. In an accident and emergency hospital you make tough decisions all the time about triaging and prioritising who is the neediest of the people in an already needy group of people.”

The same expose also discovers an illegal trade in UNHCR registration cards, perpetrated by local UNHCR representatives.

A UN translator tells Al Jazeera: “All the money from this activity goes into the pockets of some top guys in the UN... We have been doing this with him for a long time. We are thieves, and we look for thieves above us.”

101 East’s ‘Malaysia's Unwanted’ airs from Thursday, Nov 20 at 2230 GMT.

Viewers can also join the conversation online by tweeting @AJ101East and @SteveChaoSC.

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For more information, and to watch the program online after broadcast, click here .