Chern Jie

Deprived of citizenship when Myanmar gained independence from Britain in 1948, the Rohingyas have been shunted from one inhospitable Asian state to another for nearly 50 years.

 

Rohingya communities numbering in the tens of thousands have fled to Bangladesh, been forced back to persecution in Myanmar, then fled again, some to Malaysia. Because few of the states involved have signed the United Nations' Refugee Convention of 1951, the Rohingya remain stateless, unpopular candidates for resettlement.

 

Their Muslim faith has helped many Rohingyas to settle in predominantly Muslim regions of Malaysia, but their lack of rights and residency papers has kept them destitute. Treated as illegal immigrants and often uneducated and unskilled, some have become beggars.

 

But a longstanding labor problem in Malaysia is about to change that. The country is urgently seeking ways to solve a national labor shortage that is already having an effect on growth prospects for this year.

 

After an assault on illegal labor that resulted in the expulsion from Malaysia of more than 100,000 workers in recent months, new approaches to providing labor are being considered. Putting the Rohingya to work is seen as one answer.

First of all, I never heard of "Rohingyas". Never knew that they were an immigrant problem.

"We think they should be absorbed into the labor force," said the Malaysian home minister, Azmi Khalid. "We have to find ways to organize them because it will be a waste if they are here and we don't recognize them or we don't give them the opportunity."

 

Khalid added: "Like it or not, they are here; so it's better if we give them jobs rather than not and we have foreign workers anyway. So why can't we make them foreign workers too?"

A matter of fact. Wonder who's Azmi Khalid though... ??? Home minister.

Diplomats and experts in refugee issues praised the latest decision as an innovative approach to two serious problems: the labor shortage and the difficult living conditions suffered by the Rohingya underclass.

 

As a relatively wealthy Asian country, Malaysia is eager to avoid being seen as a desirable destination for the dispossessed.

 

This line amazes me.

Why oh why does Malaysia constantly faces labour shortage issues? I've never seen any other countries suffering from such problems. Maybe there is, maybe that I've not opened my eyes wide enough to see it. But I think this is something worth questioning. Untill today, I still fail to understand how things are the way they are right now. What are the contributing factors to it and how to solve from that angle. Okay, my mind is all screwed and I shall head to bed.

The above article snippets are extracted from IHT