voices of the 50 refugees

“They beat me every time I made a mistake. They beat me with their hands and feet. They beat me with metal bars, about this size and this size…” showing that it was the length of his hand, and then his arm. “They would throw pieces of chain at me”, he said. Sometimes there would be blood all over.

“There were 5 of us slaves – two others from Thailand and another three from Cambodia. They killed 3 of us. They killed the first person about a month after we set out to sea. This guy had bought some whiskey at the port, and when he ran out of alcohol, he couldn’t work as hard. They were really angry. So they took him to the front of the boat and beat him every day. He was very afraid. One day, after beating him up, they threw him overboard. But he could swim a bit, so he swam back to the ship. They called to him. “Come, come” they said. So he swam back, but when he tried to board the ship, they beat him with spades, so he fell down into the water. Again he swam and he tried to climb up, but this time they beat him with hooks. There was blood all over. He fell back into the sea and was unconscious for about 15 minutes, just floating. The third time, he swam back but dare not climb up, so he was just clinging to the fishing net by the side of the boat. This was when one of them climbed down and stabbed him in the throat with a small knife”.

“They killed his friend too. He was a bit older than us and I think he couldn’t work as hard as they wanted him too. They called him, and when he went, they told him that this would happen to him if he didn’t work hard. When he looked over the edge of the boat to see what happend to his friend, they struck the back of his head with an axe. He fell into the sea, dead”.

“I was so afraid. I thought I would be killed like them. I thought I would die”.

what a sad story eh? this story came from a 25 years old man (picture) from myanmar, a refugee in malaysia. there are more sad and touching stories at fiftyrefugees.malaysia site.

i came to know of the fiftyrefugees site from susan loone’s blog.  fiftyrefugees was started by 37 years old malaysia by the name of aris oziar. this is what she had to say about the website:

As at June 2007, there are approximately 37,000 Refugees registered with the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) in Malaysia. Many more are asylum seekers who have yet to achieve Refugee status. This website tells the stories of 50 of them. Aged from babies barely a month old to grandfathers and grandmothers in their 50s, theirs is a varied background, coming from 3 different countries and 10 different ethnicities. Theirs is a heart-wrenching story of detention, abuse, fear, neglect, and humiliation. But these are stories of resilience, courage, hope and love as well.

Read their stories here. People who are of your age, or of your children’s age, or your parents’.

Normal human beings, of flesh and blood, hopes and dreams, like you and me.

and this is her message to all malaysians bloggers:

Dear Malaysian Bloggers,

My name is Aris Oziar. For the past three months I have been working on a website project called FiftyRefugees. As the name implies, it chronicles the story of 50 refugees who currently call Malaysia their home.

This project is part of the 50-44 Merdeka Coalition (www.50-44.org ), a group of local NGOs who will conduct an alternative celebration of Merdeka in September after the official celebrations have died down. NGOs in their respective fields will touch on various issues, highlighting migrants, refugees, Orang Asli, the urban poor, race and religion etc.

Malaysia does not recognise the Geneva Refugee Convention, and partly as a result of this (we have other legal avenues to give them rights, such as IMM13 but the government has refused to act), Refugees in Malaysia who cross the border illegally or whose visa has lapsed are classified as Illegal Immigrants, subject to arrest and detention by the police, RELA and Immigration. They have restricted access to healthcare services and the children cannot go to government schools, effectively denying them education

As a Malaysian, I am outraged to hear their stories of Malaysia – 3 years of detention or living in makeshift jungle campsfear of arrest. Stories of a 6 year old girl whose last visit to town was 4 years ago (the mother is too afraid to bring her out), and her 55 year old father who eventually died because the police took all their money the one time they were desperate enough to go to the hospital to treat his illness. And of course, of the Malaysian immigration authorities dumping them across the border in Thailand, where they are rounded up by agents and either pay these agents to get back to Malaysia , or face slave labour – the men in fishing boats and the women, probably sold to the sex trade. jungle due to

I want average Malaysians to know. To know that refugees do exist in Malaysia . To know that they braved a dangerous journey to Malaysia to escape atrocities in their own country. To know that most of them live a margnal life, often exploited, almost always in fear.

We have tasted independence for the past 50 years. And yet, today, there are still people in this country who have none.

Please, if you have time, write about this issue or perhaps mention www.fiftyrefugees.wordpress.com . Malaysians read your blogs. I want them to know.

Warmest regards
arisoziar@yahoo.com

so my dear bloggers friends, do make some mention of her website in your blog, ok? if you are a busy blogger (or popular blogger) you don’t have to give a long essay like i did but just one line mention to introduce her website will do.

ok as we are talking about refugees, i will like to highlight that one of our parish human development committe’s project will be to help the the rohingyas refugees in bukit malut settlement in pulau langkawi.

on 21 february 2007, a fire broke out at bkt malut settlement where  the rohingyas stays. 225 homes were destroyed which left 1067 people homeless, including 800 school children. this was the second fire that occurred at their settlement. in 2005, there was one which destroyed 130 homes and affected 500 families. they were also affected by the great tsunami of 2004. this means the Feb. 2007 fire was the third disaster they encountered.

presently they are living in make-shift tents and surviving minimally on 2 meals a day with just rice and canned sardine. sometimes the sardines are not enough to feed them, so at times, some of then only had to be contented with just the sardine gravy. we intend to give them one good meal of vegetable and chicken. even though it will be just a ‘one off’ help (no long term thing) we are extending to them, i am sure they will appreciate it as they get to eat one good meal with chicken; or else they on their own won’t afford chicken (or other vege for that matter). 

well most probably we will go at the end of september. i will sure take lots of photos and write about it.