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Malaysia's Rohingya Refugees Forced to Work in Shadows

Zsombor Peter

   KUALA LUMPUR - On the morning of March 2, 2012, Mohammad Yunus boarded
   a rickety wooden boat on the far eastern shores of Bangladesh with
   about 100 fellow Muslim Rohingya from the sprawling refugee camps of
   Cox's Bazar.

   Yunus, then 22, had recently fled his native Myanmar, where bloody
   communal clashes between Muslims and Buddhists were driving thousands
   of Rohingya from their homes. Though safe in Bangladesh, Yunus soon
   found life in the teeming camps unbearable. He saw no more of a future
   for himself there than in Myanmar, where the Rohingya are denied
   citizenship and face heavy persecution.

   After 11 harrowing days at sea, and three more evading authorities in
   the jungles of southern Thailand, Yunus was smuggled into Malaysia,
   where he hoped to pick up where his life had so suddenly stalled. But
   seven years on, he feels as though his life remains on hold.

   Though Malaysia lets refugees register with the UNHCR, the U.N.'s
   refugee agency, the country provides them next to no aid and denies
   them the right to work, while charging them for health care. Rights
   groups say that leaves most refugees with little choice but to toil in
   the country's shadow economy, where they can fall prey to employers
   ready to exploit their desperation, paying them less than others or not
   at all. Refugees also are barred from attending government schools,
   cutting them off from another path to improving their lot.