news feature In a last ditch effort to gain a decent life, a group of Burmese men, women and children forced their way into the grounds of a United Nations High Commission for Refugees centre in Kuala Lumpur last Friday.

Cutting through a fence, the refugees then camped-out in the compound, in hope that their desperate attempt would win them legal asylum in a third country.

But, they may have just dug their own graves.

In many ways, these immigrants of the Burmese Rohingya community were wanting to draw attention to their plight.

The Rohingyas are a Muslim community originating from the western Arakan state of Burma. They claim to be a distinct ethnic community within Burma. But the Rohingyas have been victims of their own government.

Successive Burmese governments since 1962 have denied the Rohingyas their citizenship rights. The community has also, on occasion, been forced out of the country as illegal immigrants.

Information on Rohingyas living in the Malaysia and those still in Burma is scarce and the 28 immigrants who broke into the UNHCR compound were determined to be heard.

"We feel a lot of pain and we came to ask for help from the UNHCR. We want the world to know our plight," said Abib Peter who was among those who entered the agency's compound.

"We can find work here but we are tired of going in and out of (Malaysian detention) camps," said the 38-year-old immigrant.

Back to the border

Most of those seeking refuge had previously been detained in illegal immigrant camps by Malaysian immigration officials.

In keeping with the Malaysian policy regarding illegal Burmese immigrants, they are then deported to neighbouring Thailand from where they are then sent to the Thai-Burma border. And here, they are left to do or die.

Despite repeated deportations to no-where-land, some risk life and limb to find their way back into Malaysia.

"Only the lucky ones make it back here," said Nasim Saufi, another immigrant said while showing several large scars on his legs and arm which he claims are the result of gunshot wounds.

For these homeless people, living under the fear of arrest is preferable to being in their native state in Burma, where they say Muslim Rohingyas are discriminated against because of their religion.

"It is not hard for my family to make a living in Burma, but government persecution makes life so difficult," said Abib, adding that his brother had been jailed for the past three years by the Burmese military.

This persecution includes seizure of their crops by government officials, sometimes as high as half the yield.

The Rohingyas get almost nothing in return. There are no hospitals or schools to serve the poor rural population, said Abib.

Rohingya children are not issued with birth certificates and adults are not given passports, leaving them with no documentation to prove their identity.

Executions of rebels

For the past twelve years, a severe travel restriction imposed on the Rohingyas by the current Burmese military junta strictly confines them only to their home villages.

"How can we live like that? People are trapped in small villages and not allowed to move anywhere," said Abib.

In its 1996 report titled The Rohingya Muslims: Ending a Cycle of Exodus? , the Human Rights Watch, based in the United States, said that human rights abuses in Burma took many forms. They include summary executions of suspected rebels, forced labour, arbitrary arrest, cruel and inhumane treatment, violations of the laws of war and the total denial of freedom of speech and association.

According to Abib, these forms of persecution were the key factors in reducing the Rohingya population ratio in Arakan state from 70 percent in 1945 to 50 percent today.

Many of those who fled Burma between 1991 and1992 now live in neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia.

The number of Rohingyas currently seeking refuge in Bangladesh is anything between 50,000 and 100,000 while another 95,000 live in Thailand.

Rohingyas in Malaysia

Local authorities estimate the number of illegal Rohingyas in Malaysia at somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000.

However, out of the 2,000 who officially applied for refugee status with the UNHCR in Malaysia over the past few years, less than 100 have been approved for resettlement in a third country.

Lowell Martin, head of the Kuala Lumpur UNHCR liaison office, said the agency applies strict criteria with regard to these cases.

"We have reviewed individual cases and we did not find them to be political refugees according to the UNHCR mandate," he said in reference to the 28 immigrants who invaded the agency's grounds on Friday.

However, in its August 2000 report entitled Living in Limbo: Burmese Rohingyas in Malaysia, Human Rights Watch called into question the policy adhered to by the UNHCR.

The low rate of approval for asylum seekers suggested that the agency is underestimating the dangers Rohingyas face if forced back to Burma, said the report.

According to the watchdog body, three years after the forcible repatriation of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh in 1992-1993, the agency had been unable to trace at least 50,000 of those sent back.

Governments in a quandary

Meanwhile, the governments hosting the majority of the Rohingya refugee population have also been put in a quandary.

For the Bangladeshi government, the country's struggling economy has resulted in its reluctance to accept the thousands crossing its border each year.

Thailand is already host to some 600,000 illegal Burmese immigrants from various ethnic groups, including the Rohingya, the Karenni and the Shan, all seeking low-paid jobs in the construction and agricultural industries.

Malaysia is host to a relatively small Rohingya community and continues to struggle with the management of its large communities of Indonesian and Filipino migrant workers.

Furthermore, none of these governments are signatories to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention. As such they do not have proper systems for adjudicating asylum claims of refugees, particularly those who are stateless.

As for the 28 who invaded the UNHCR compound last week, their desperate action appears to have produced no result aside from being detained by the police and sent to an illegal immigrant detention camp.

The cycle then repeats itself and it remains to be seen if any these refugees will be 'lucky' enough to make it back safely to Malaysia.