Below is an excerpt from an article published by NST Online:

About 40,000 refugees are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia.

As of March this year, the highest number of refugees were the Rohingyas from the northern Rakhine state in Myanmar, who totalled about 12,600.

About 11,300 are other ethnic minorities from Myanmar, like the Chins and Myanmar Muslims.

Another 10,000 refugees are from the province of Aceh but their number is gradually decreasing, following positive changes in Aceh.

Other refugees are from countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and African countries, such as Nigeria and Sudan.

According to the UNHCR public information source, some 13,000, or 30 per cent of the refugees, are women.

There are 9,200 refugee children aged 18 and below. Most of them live with their families.

The refugees live mostly in the Klang Valley, sometimes in groups of 20 people, sharing low-cost apartments, in urban villages or housing estates.

Some live near construction sites and in makeshift camps in the jungles near Selangor.

The UNHCR does not aid the refugees financially, thus making them independent.

As the refugees are not recognised by Malaysian law, they cannot be legally employed. Most of them take up jobs which are dirty, dangerous or difficult — jobs which locals do not want to do.

The UNHCR defines refugees as those who were forced to leave their countries because of the difficult living conditions in their home countries, due to armed conflict, serious public disorder and complex human rights issues.

The Rohingya community numbers about 3,700. They have lived here for the past decade with their children, making them the largest group of refugee children here.

Most of the Rohingyas speak Malay fluently.

They have also integrated fairly well with the local community, finding some level of support in the local mosques in terms of religious and spiritual needs.

Their men mostly work in the garbage collection sector, in shops or at wet markets.

The Chin community, who are Christians, came here about five years ago due to the difficult situation they faced in the Chin state in Myanmar.

Most of them live in urban areas, mostly in flats, shared by 20 to 30 people.

The men work in construction sites and tend to live in makeshift camps in the jungles near the work area. The women wash dishes in restaurants or work as waitresses.

Recently, some of the women have begun small-scale income-generating projects such as embroidery andknitting.

The UNHCR began its operations in Malaysia in 1975 when [...] Vietnamese [...] people arrived on the eastern shores of the country.