Home Minister Azmi Khalid today said no final decision has been made over the government's recent announcement to recognise Rohingya Muslims from Burma as refugees.

He said the government does not have any new policy to recognise a new group of refugees.

"In my opinion, among other reasons we don't encourage (refugee status) is because it will lead to an influx of refugees here," he told reporters at the Parliament lobby.

However, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz announced in October that the government has decided to recognise Rohingyas as refugees.

Nazri said the decision had become a policy last November but has yet to be implemented.

To this, Azmi argued that his statement did not contradict Nazri's announcement but added that he would have to discuss with the relevant government agencies to determine the actual status of the issue.

UNHCR rapped

The minister also took the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to task for not assisting the ministry in resettling refugees in third countries.

"What we know is that UNHCR only selects refugees with special expertise and qualifications to send them to third countries, the rest they don't care and leave it to us, this is the problem," he said.

Azmi earlier responded to a question by Teresa Kok (DAP-Seputeh) on the same issue in the Dewan Rakyat during his winding-up on the debates regarding the Home Ministry's allocation under Budget 2005.

UNHCR estimates that there are about 10,000 Rohingyas in Malaysia. Their recognition as refugees will provide the community with more job opportunities besides ensuring their children's education.

No fake MyKad

In his winding-up speech, Azmi said there have been no cases of forged MyKad recorded by the ministry so far. MyKad, introduced in September 2001, is an identity card with an inbuilt data-storing microchip.

However, he said a total of 120 cases of data being changed, such as changing photographs, have been reported.

The minister said the security features in MyKad have been enhanced and such changes can be traced.

The Bar Council had previously urged the government to put in place new laws to safeguard unauthorised use of personal data obtained from MyKad.