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KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — Rohingya Muslim refugee and activist Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani has urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to reconsider his application for resettlement after living in Malaysia for almost 30 years.
Zafar, who is President of the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation Malaysia (Merhrom), said in a tweet yesterday that it has been a year since false allegations of him demanding Malaysian citizenship went viral, causing both him and his family to be on the receiving end of hate speech and death threats.
“Today marks one year since false accusations against me on social media platforms on April 21, 2020. I urgently appeal to UNHCR and resettlement countries to reconsider my case for urgent resettlement as I constantly receive threats, harassments and insults. I hope justice prevails.
“I lived in confinement for the past one year and am still waiting for the UNHCR to process my case. I have no other way to continue living here in the current conditions due to constant threats to security and life,” he tweeted.
A UNHCR spokesman in Malaysia told Malay Mail that they could not comment on individual cases as it goes against their global policy.
The spokesman, however, explained in an email that resettlement is prioritised for highly vulnerable refugees and those who are in need of urgent protection, adding that it would also depend on the availability of resettlement offered by third countries.
“However, the decisions related to resettlement do not lie with UNHCR.
“Resettlement countries also have certain criteria when making decisions on accepting submitted resettlement cases. It is generally a combination of factors that determine if a person is accepted for resettlement,” said the spokesman.
The spokesman added that less than five per cent of the world’s refugees receive placement in a third country each year, and that since 2008, over 88,500 refugees have been resettled from Malaysia to third countries.
In April last year, allegations of Merhrom demanding full Malaysian citizenship for Rohingyas took social media by storm and drew an array of xenophobic attacks by netizens against the Rohingya community.
Zafar has repeatedly denied the allegations and stated he is a victim of a disinformation campaign.
Recently, a report by international news portal Reuters shared that he has not left his home on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur for nearly a year, after misinformation spread online that he had demanded Malaysian citizenship.
Zafar, who is registered with the UNHCR, applied to be moved to another country but his request was rejected after the agency said he did not meet its criteria for resettlement.
He said he hopes the agency will reconsider his case because he no longer feels safe in Malaysia.
“I cannot relax my body, my brain, my heart. I cry asking why people are doing this to me,” he told Reuters.