The truth: We are not there yet

Be a safe and courageous space for community to thrive

Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol and there is no legislative or administrative framework to address refugee issues. Under Malaysian law, refugees are not distinguished from undocumented migrants, and are therefore vulnerable to arrest, detention, prosecution, whipping and deportation. A lack of official status means that refugees have no access to sustainable livelihoods or formal education. Yet, there are still many refugees entering Malaysia each day, accounting to 200,260 registered refugees and asylum seekers as of May 2025. The one of the many ways to survive and get supported is through their own communities.

At individual level, every refugee who fled from their respective origin countries will search out for their own communities when they arrive in Malaysia for a sense of belonging, security and safety as well as information and assistance.

With that at the community level, there are various societal units, community structures, people groups that exist within the communities. However, at this level, there are groups that offer help voluntary with a kind heart, there are also groups that have unkind ulterior motives. These groups are called community-based organization (CBO) or community-led organization (CLO) depending on its nature. These CBOs and CLOs are needful for the individuals for the reasons mentioned above, but which truly offer sustainable and genuine help is questionable.

This is because at the higher ecosystem level, there is little to none governance and monitoring over these CBOs and CLOs. Malaysia government at the moment, do not have the political willpower, system and resources to govern these CBOs/CLOs. Naturally, the next in line to govern the CBOs and CLOs would be the UNHCR. And the bad news is, UNHCR has no legal authority to do that in Malaysia which many mistakenly think that UNHCR has.

With that reason, many CBOs and CLOs are emerging out of thin air. To date there are more than 90 CBOs/CLOs under the refugee communities not properly governed and monitored by anyone. There is also no legal requirement, professional standard or expectation on accountability for the services provided by the CBOs and CLOs to the different refugee communities.

Without condemning the efforts of the CBOs and CLOs, they are indeed a great help to the communities but with rooms for improvement. Therefore, SWWB intends to close the gap, by being the middle person between the CBO/CLOs and the government and UNHCR; and to solve the existing issue by journeying with these CBOs and CLOs side by side to further develop their professional service framework, to have a standard accountability requirement, so that they may better service and support their communities - to be a safe and courageous space for community to thrive.

p/s: find out more on how we support the CBOs and CLOs through Project Side by Side by requesting our proposal from us.

References:
1. Refugee situation in Malaysia by UNHCR Global Report 2009
2. Refugee number in Malaysia