Check out these powerful photographs by Simon Wheatley of Burmese refugees living in Malaysia.
I spent a week in Malaysia in July 2005, listening to stories from some of the tens of thousands of Burmese who had fled religious or political persecution back home in the hopes of finding safety in Malaysia. They didn’t find it. Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees, and it does not recognize the status of refugees – even those carrying UNHCR identification – and treats them as illegal immigrants.
The government arms volunteer civilian groups, called RELA, to go on raids throughout the country, rounding up refugees as if they were cattle. Burmese told me about running from RELA forces. If they get caught, they must either pay a hefty bribe or face time in a detention center and then be deported. I met Burmese political refugees who got caught, sent to a detention center, deported to Thailand, lured by a smuggler, brought back into Malaysia, and then caught and deported all over, again and again and again.
Muslim Rohingya refugees told me they fled Rakkhine State in western Burma because they were denied citizenship on the basis of their religion. They couldn’t marry, get a higher degree or travel freely. They fled to Kuala Lumpur and found more discrimination – taunted by Muslim Malaysians because they came from Burma. They couldn’t get proper jobs and were living a life of poverty, squeezing four or five into one tiny bedroom.
I traveled to a plantation in Malaysia and met with refugees from Chin State in northern Burma. I heard stories about their churches back home being burned down because they weren’t Buddhist. On the plantation, they work hard all day – with no protection from the sun or pesticides – and then hike into the thick forests each night, sleeping in make-shift huts so the RELA forces can’t find them. Each morning, they hike back down to work on the plantation for little pay. They have no rights and told me that if a boss decides he won’t compensate them, their options are to keep working or get sent to a detention center.