Kuala Lumpur is one of the capitials for Burmese refugees. A recent U.S. report stated Burma led third in the world of nations with the largest refugee migration, behind Iraq and Afghanistan. They escape to Malaysia, to India, to Thailand, to Bangladesh and to China. The total number of Burmese refugee's is estimates to be between 700,000 and a million. Some refugee's are subject to random arrest as illegals as it is sometimes extremely difficult to obtain U.N. refugee status.
This article points out that living conditions in cities of refuge can sometimes be as hostile as the homeland left behind.
I don't know if the camps in Kuala Lumpur are actually some of the worst as the article reports.
past an almost completed luxury housing project, over hilly and mosquito-infested terrain, through an illegal rubbish dump and across a riverbed reeking with sewage.In a clearing, the Chin refugees huddle into eight huts made with sheets of zinc and cardboard, and draped with pieces of plastic.
I do know they are "harassed by Malaysia's controversial volunteer security corps which hunts down illegal migrants". Suram in Malaysia help to fight this.
Michael Boak Tun Thang, a 26-year-old farmer from northern Chin state, came to Malaysia in early 2006 and has been hiding in various jungle camps ever since."The junta came to my village with rifles. Because there were only a few men, they ordered all the boys and also the women to become porters and carry their foods and boxes," he says.
"They raped all the women, even my sister, but I could not do anything. We carried the heavy things but they never paid us or gave us any meals."
Some very informative and detailed reports have been put together on these subjects are are relatively up to date. State of Terror: The ongoing rape, murder, torture and forced labour suffered by women living under the Burmese Military Regime in Karen State (pdf) and Unsafe State: State-sanctioned sexual violence against Chin women in Burma. (pdf)
Debbie Stothard from human rights group Altsean Burma stated,
"Malaysia has become one of the worst places for Burmese asylum seekers because of the way the government and its enforcers have brutalised and abused refugees,"
Here is Altsean's November Bulletin
