U.N. teams up with Czech Republic to provide mobile clinics for refugees in Malaysia
Fri Jun 22, 2007
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) _ The United Nations' refugee agency formed a partnership Friday with the Czech Republic and Malaysian volunteer physicians to set up mobile clinics to boost health care for refugee communities.
Doctors and nurses in vans will regularly visit 1,000 refugees, mostly people who fled military-ruled Myanmar, starting July 1 in Klang district near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's main city, said Volker Turk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' representative in Malaysia.
Refugees in Malaysia _ who are not legally allowed to find employment _ sometimes have trouble obtaining medical treatment because of financial costs, language barriers and problems in physically reaching hospitals and clinics, Turk told a news conference.
``It's a marginalized and vulnerable group that is not living in the most healthy environment,'' Turk said.
The Czech Embassy in Kuala Lumpur is providing US$20,000 (euro14,934) to pay for medicine, while Mercy Malaysia, a nongovernment group, will supply the medical staff for the nine-month project.
``Foreign humanitarian aid is an integral part of the Czech Republic's policy,'' said Dana Hunatova, the Czech ambassador to Malaysia.
Respiratory infections, hypertension and stress-related illnesses are common among Malaysia's refugee communities, but many of these problems can easily be treated with basic medication, project officials said.
There are about 37,000 refugees registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia, nearly a quarter of whom are under 18 years old.
Some 24,000 are from Myanmar, including people from minority groups such as the ethnic Rohingyas, ethnic Chins and Muslims. Ethnic minorities in Myanmar have long faced persecution from the military, and many hide in jungles or attempt to leave the country.
There are also some 10,000 people from Indonesia's Aceh province, where a decades-long separatist insurgency ended after a 2006 peace deal. The UNHCR says many Acehnese have been returning home, and they are no longer ``considered of concern'' to the agency.
Malaysia has a long history of distrust toward foreign migrants or refugees. The government does not recognize refugees and has repeatedly rejected the UNHCR's call for Malaysia to stop regarding refugees as illegal immigrants who can be deported at any time.
