KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is home to more than 150,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered with the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR. More than 90 per cent of them come from Myanmar, of which ethnic Rohingya Muslims account for more than 50,000.
Among them is Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani from Myanmar's Rakhine state, who arrived in Malaysia in the 1990s and has never left. He now leads a non-government organisation advocating for the rights of the Rohingya Muslims.
A number of them continue to arrive in Malaysia, the 45-year-old said. Although no smugglers' boats have been sighted in the Andaman Sea during the past few months, Rohingya Muslims are being smuggled from detention centres in neighbouring Indonesia by local traffickers, he said.
"It's still ongoing. Malaysia has freedom. Refugees can survive. But those living in Indonesia's Aceh, they live in refugee camps and cannot go out; no freedom," Zafar said.
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